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LECTURES 



ON 



EDUCATION, 



BY * 



GEORGE BREI^ISTER, 



PRINCIPAL OF CLEVELAND ACADEMY. 



" 'Tis education forms the common mind, 
"Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inciin'd." 

POPE. 



COLUMBUS: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 

BY JOHN bailhache: 

1833. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by George 
Brewster, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio. 






M 



CONTENTS. 

LECTURE L 

SUBJECT RISE AND PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. 

LECTURE II. 

SUBJECT ERRORS IN PRESENT SYSTEMS OF COMMON EDUCATION. 

LECTURE III. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACHERS. 

LECTURE IF. 

SUBJECT THE SAME. 

LECTURE V. 

SUBJECT THE SA3IE. 

LECTURE VI. 

SUBJECT THE APPROPRIATE ORDER OF STUDIES FROM THE PRI- 
MARY TO THE METAPHYSICAL DEPARTMENT. 

LECTURE VII. 

SUBJECT THE SAME. 

LECTURE VIII. 

SUBJECT ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS OF PROFESSORS. 

LECTURE IX. 

SUBJECT GOVERNMENT OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS. 

LECTURE X. 

SUBJECT MANUAL LABOR IN SCHOOLS. 

LECTURE XI. 

SUBJECTS. INFLUENCE OF NOVEL-READING TENDENCY OF BOOK- 
AUCTIONS ART OF DECLA3IATION PRESENT CONDITION OF 

THE PUBLIC PRESS. 

LECTURE XII. 

SUBJECTS. CAUSES WHICH HAVE OPERATED IN PAST AGES 
AGAINST IMPROVEMENTS, AND THE METHOD OF THEIR OPERA- 
TION THE CAUSES WHICH WILL PROBABLY OPERATE AGAINST 

IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATION THE MEANS BY WHICH THOSE 

CAUSES MAY BE RENDERED POWERLESS. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

An apology may] here be appropriately offered, for the 
great disproportion, which will be perceived, by perusal, 
between the various Lectures, as to their length. The vol- 
ume had been limited to twelve Lectures, containing three 
hundred and sixty pages. Paper was procured for that num- 
ber. But, in the process of revision for the press, copious 
emendations, interlineations, and new ideas suggested them- 
selves to the mind of the Author, which seemed to him to 
demand admission into the work. He, therefore, admitted 
them, which will, satisfactorily, account for the fact, that, 
while some Lectures extend through two, and even three 
parts, others, at the last, are, in consequence, much curtailed. 



PREFACE. 

An author, who, uhinvited and of his own accord, brings before 
the public, the discussion of topics of prominent interest to commu- 
nity, must be supposed to have been influenced so to do, by motives 
sufficiently powerful to overcome that reluctance, which must, natu- 
rally, be felt, to introduce one's self to notice, as a monitor, adviser, and 
counsellor of others, as every author must be supposed to be; and, it 
is expected, furthermore, that he will make known those motives, in 
his address to the reader. In accordance with this reasonable expec- 
tation, the author of the succeeding series of Lectures would say, that, 
although he has been extremely diffident of his ability to do justice to 
the vastly important subjects, which he has undertaken to discuss, he 
has, nevertheless, been impelled, as it were, to discuss them, by the 
power of motives, which he could not well resist. During fifteen years 
of public service, as a teacher, in various parts of the Union, he had 
observed numerous errors in present systems of common education — 
errors, extremely pernicious — errors, the correction of which, the wel- 
fare of the rising generation, the stability of our free institutions, and 
the perpetuity of our republic, loudly demanded. He had, in his own 
experience, felt the blighting influences of those erroneous systems, 
in the destruction of his health, and in the debilitation of his consti- 
tution, which resulted, necessarily, from that over-exertion of the mind 
and the lungs, which is required in the proper explanation of the sci- 
ences in schools, tvhere Labor is not dividrd among Teachers, He 
had, also, heard the prevalent and palpable errors in education lamen- 
ted and deprecated, by thousands of intelligent, observing, and patriotic 
individuals, in various parts of the Union, and had heard the question — 
the momentous question, asked, and asked again— echoed and re-echoed, 
from Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the wilds of the West 
— "What can be done to elevate the standard, and correct the errors 
of the present modus operandi of instruction.^" Long did he Avait to 
hear this question ansivered definitely, and to hear it answered by 
men, far abler to answer it, satisfactorily, than himself. But, he waited 
in vain. No definite response was given. Conceiving, however, that 



vi PREFACE. 

such an answer could be given, and seeing no one else disposed to 
assume the vast responsibilities of giving it, he felt that duty to his 
country, to the world, and to his God, impelled him to speak out upon 
the subject, and to give publicity to the results of his experience and 
observation. Urged forward by such powerful inducempnts and mo- 
tives, he has spoken out, in the pages of the succeeding volume — has 
endeavored to give that question a definite answer — and now submits it, 
respectfully, yet diffidently, to a thinking and candid public. 

It may not be improper, here, to remark, that, when the author sat 
down to plan this work, the question arose in his mind, whether he 
should only point out the errors m preseni systems, and propose, what 
he considered, to be, but partial, not radical, improvements, and which 
the community mii^ht, in a mass, readily approbate; or, whether he 
should go to the ivhole extent of those improvements, \^hich the exigen- 
cies of the case seemed, to him, imperatively, to demand, and which, 
it miijht require ten, twenty, thirty, yea, evenfifli/ years to accomplish. 
While agitating the question, the latter alternative preponderated in 
his mind, and he determined, therefore, to go to the whole extent which 
the exigencies of the case required. For, he could not perceive a 
propriety nor an expedieney, as some might imagine, in stopping short 
of a theory which would aim at a thorough, complete, and radical, 
improvement, merely because the public might not, at once, and hear- 
tily, co-operate in experiments to test the benefits and the feasibleness 
of that theory. 

But, in proposing such a system of radical improvement, the author 
has had no friendly guide to point out the way. He has traveled 
through a pathless and an almost untrodden region. He has had 
access to no publications of any extent upon the main subject of these 
Lectures. Indeed, so far as his knowledge extends, no one has ever 
written upon the subject, to any extent, or with any definiteness. It 
must be obvious, therefore, that the effort was attended with no com- 
mon difficulties — difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable. So 
many more have been the difficulties of the undertaking, than were 
anticipated when it was comir.enced, and so vast and crushing have 
seemed its repponsibilities, oftentimes, that nothing but a sense of 
imperative duty would have induced the author to have persevered 
until its completion. But, this he has done; and now offers to the 
public, what, upon mature deliberation, and from the best information 
he could gather upon the subject, he considers to be that theory of 
improvements which the exigencies of the case demand. If it be not 
such a theory, it is because the author has erred in judgment, and not 
because he has not given the subject a patient and a thorough investi- 
gation. 

Imperfections — many imperfections, the work, doubtless, has. Of 
these, tiic author is deeply conscious; and when he contemplates 



PREFACE. vii 

them, he cither regrets that he was not more able, himself, or that 
some abler person had not been willing to have undertaken the work, 
and, by his eloquence, have awakened public sentiment and aroused 
the entire community to active exertion. 

It will be perceived, by a perusal of the Avork, that we have adopted 
Webster's Dictionary as the standard of Orthograpiiy and Pronuncia- 
tion, not only because it is American, but because we consider it most 
correct. No standard, perhaps, can be made, or be expected to be, 
infallible. There can be some exceptions made to the most, perfect 
human production. Yet, if we adopt a system, we had better follow 
it throughout, for the sake of consistency and uniformity, even though 
there be a few errors, unless those errors are too glaring to be adop- 
ted. The ^author has, therefore, adopted Webster, as a standard, 
throughout, and if there have been any deviation from that standard, 
it has been owing to typographical mistakes, rather than to intention; 
which mistakes may be corrected in a future edition, if the partialities 
of the public should ever call for it. 

Though it be of minor importance, it will also be perceived that we 
have departed, in accordance wiili our adopted standard, from that 
word which denotes the science, the object of which is, "to discover 
the nature and properties of all bodies, by analysis and synthesis," and 
have written it Chimisiry instead of Chemistry, or as formerly, Chymis- 
try, because this orthography is in accordance with the French chimie, 
the Spanish chimia, and ihe Italian and Portuguese chimica. 

Finally, in conclusion, the author has only to commend this, his sin- 
cere and arduous effort to benefit the rising generation, his country, 
and, more remotely, the world, to the candor and good sense of an 
intelligent community — this, his sincere and arduous e^orf, he repeats 
with emphasis, to benefit even the world; — for, who does not know 
that the hopes of the world — yea, of the whole world, hang suspended 
upon the success of our experiment of civil liberty; and who does not 
also know, that, unless education be universally disseminated, and the 
wholej^mass of the people be enlightened, that experiment will, most 
assuredly— FAIL? If this work shall have the happy effect, as the 
author most fervently hopes it may— to stimulate the patriot, the states- 
man, and the philanthropist, to put forth such exertions as the impor- 
tance of the subject demands, the author will feel that his efforts have 
not been in vain, but have been abundantly rewarded. 
Cleveland, Sept. 23, 1833. 



LECTURE I. 

SUBJECT mSE AJVD PROGRESS OP EDUCATION. 

Standing at the mouth of the Amazon, and beholding it 
■emptying its vast sheet of waters into the ocean, the trav- 
eler naturally glances a thought backward along its nar- 
rowing channel, to the far off mountains of the west, where 
it dwindles to a little rill, and trickles down the declivities 
of the Andes. Or, standing in the valleys of Swit?;erland, 
and viewing some mighty avalanche bursting from the 
heights above liim, and crushing beneath its weight the 
village at the foot of the Alps, the beholder is prompted to 
glance his eye upward along its diminishing pathway, un- 
til he discovers, that, what had grown to a ponderous mass 
ere it reached the vale, was but a snow-ball when it leap- 
ed from the brow of the icy summit. So the present gene- 
ration, standing upon Alpine heights of ages, irradiated 
by the beams of Science, and enraptured with the prospect, 
which there opens before the eye of the intellect, will na- 
turally look back, through the vista of gone by years, to 
the period, when the day spring of science first dawned in 
the east; and comparing the dim twilight of its rising, with 
its present effulgence, and with those still increasing glo- 
ries, which may rationally be anticipated, and which futu- 
rity will unfold, they arrive at the conclusion, that grand 
results proceed from small beginnings. To this conclusion 
all history assents, as well as all the operations of nature. 
Go back and explore the infinitude of past duration, and 
traverse the illimitable fields of space, and, if matter be not 
eternal, there was a time, when worlds and suns and sys- 
tems began first to fill the solitudes of immensity, and in- 
tellectual beings began first to people the dwelling places 
of the planets. There was a time, when Gabriel first 
opened his eyes upon the wonders around him, and Michael 
2 



10 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

commenced his onward march through interminable dura- 
tion, both destined to glean wisdom from experience and 
observation at every step of their progress, and to aproxi- 
mate, every moment, nearer and nearer to the burning glo- 
ries of the topless throne. 

If the Jewish records be credited, (and I see no plausible 
reason why they should not, as much as other records of 
antiquity,) by a certain progressive process of six days, the 
Almighty brought into existence that part of the material 
universe with which we are conversant. The dark chaotic 
mass of substance was first originated: — Then, from the 
foundation of that mass of matter, there arose, by degrees, 
into order, beauty, and magnificent vastness, this globe and 
her sister planets. At the command of the Eternal, light 
was poured upon the formless void of darkness and waters : 
— An interval passed away, and the nether fix'mament was 
spread out between the clouds and the deep: — Another in- 
terval passed, and the spirit of all-creating power breathed 
over that mass of unorganized material, and brought into 
visibility the dry land, and clothed the hills, valleys, and 
landscapes, with blossoms, fruits and vegetation. In a like 
gradual manner, the light of the sun was collected together 
into one mass of burning glory, and hung out, like an im- 
mense ocean of fire, in the vault of the sky, — the moon and 
the stars were located around it, so as to reflect its bor- 
rowed radiance with lesser intensity, — oceans, rivers and 
streamlets were filled with living substances, — flocks and 
herds were scattered in profusion "over a thousand hills," 
— and man, the angelic proprietor of the green earth, was 
introduced into the beauteous groves and arbours of Eden. 
Thus, after a process of seven days' continuance, was the 
whole structure, with its star-spangled canopy, and its ama- 
zing furniture of plains and mountains, of forests, rivers, 
and oceans, pronounced complete. 

In all the operations of nature — in all the movements of 
the grand and complicated machinery of primary and sub- 
ordinate causes, in the production of effects, from the for- 
mation of worlds, to the growth of a blade of grass, we see, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 11 

that the order of progression prevails. The dawning light, 
for instance, precedes the rising sun, and the rising sun 
anticipates the splendor of noonday. The oak, monarch 
of the forest, springs up from an acorn, and the majestic 
Amazon rises from a little fountain. In the fields of the 
husbandman, the blade first appears, then the ear, after- 
wards the full corn in the ear. So commenced and so has 
continued the progress of the arts and sciences. Their 
march, in one department or another, has been onward, — 
gradual, indeed, and sometimes almost imperceptible, — but 
still ONWARD. Yet, however, although the present age be 
emphatically an age of. scientific illumination, — although 
our generation stand, confessedly, upon an Alpine height, 
when we look forward, and rationally anticipate those in- 
tenser degrees. of scientific illumination, which will, un- 
doubtedly, be, hereafter, witnessed, and those loftier emi- 
nences, upon which some future generation will stand, — 

" Th' increasing prospect tires our wond'ring eyes, 
"Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise." 

The literary streamlet, in its progress onward to the shore- 
less ocean of intelligence, has not yet become an Amazon, 
nor has the acorn become an oak, nor the rising dawn, a 
meridian day, nor the springing blade, a ripened harvest. 
Such, however, is destined, one day, to be the consumma- 
tion of human knowledge. Obscure in its origin^ and gra- 
dual in its progress, it is destined, at no far distant period, 
to be gloriously magnificent in its results, and completely to 
deluge the earth, with a pure flood of moral and intellectual 
illumination, as the "waters fill the channels of the great 
deep." 

Lifting the dark pall from the tomb of the antediluvians, 
and searching carefully through the misty twilight, which 
envelopes the history of the morning of the world, we glean 
a few facts, respecting the "rise and pi'ogress of education," 
during the first ages. 

Adam, the first rational inhabitant of the earth, opened 
his eyes upon the blooming scenes of Paradise, in the full 
vigor and manhood of his physical powers, but not in the 



12 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

full vigor and manhood of his intellectual powers. He had, 
indeed, been endowed with mental faculties as we are 
now, — was an intelligent being, — had organs of speech 
to communicate ideas and perceptions, but doubtless had 
not a dialect or language wherewith to communicate them 
understandingly, until some foreign agent gave him instruc- 
tion upon this subject. We infer, therefore, that he was, 
for a while, the immediate pupil of the Eternal himself, who 
frequented the garden, and often favored the progenitor 
with his presence, while innocence abode in the bowers of 
Eden. 

Soon after creation, we find Adam exercising his powers 
of speech, and evincing the rationality of his mind, by giv- 
ing names to the various tribes of animate, and to the vari- 
ous objects of inanimate nature. But the divine tuition un- 
doubtedly extended no farther than to the bare rudiments of 
language, and the original medium of intercourse must have 
been extremely simple^ composed principally of the names of 
objects or nouns, which seem to have been the root of all 
language, whence the tree has grown up and spread out its 
branches into innumerable ramifications. 

We infer that the Eternal taught Adam no superfluous 
language, nothing but what was absolutely necessary to 
answer the purposes, for which such a medium would be 
required by an infant race, from the analogy of divine econ- 
omy, as well as from the fact, that the progenitor could not 
have known those modifications of natural objects, or arti- 
cles of manufacture which had then no existence. 

By our inferences and deductions, we arrive then at this 
plausible conclusion, that the foundations of science, and 
of human intercourse, were laid by the direct agency of the 
Great Architect, whereupon Adam and his descendants 
would, in after ages, erect the superstructure as occasion 
might require, and, as the affairs and pursuits of mankind 
should become more extensive and complicated. 

But very few historical facts, respecting the advancement 
of mankind in art and science, during some of the first cen- 
tuFies after creation, can, as has before been hinted, be dis- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 13 

covered, amid the glooms which hang over ancient ceme- 
teries. Oblivion covers them, or they are half ohscured by 
the exaggerations or mysticisms of fable. 

Soon after our progenitors were turned out of the garden 
for apostacy, and the sentence, "in the sweat of thy face 
shalt thou eat bread," was pronounced, the human race 
turned their attention to agriculture. But they could not 
cultivate the soil without suitable implements, and imple- 
ments they could not have, until the inventions of genius 
should supply the destitution of the agriculturalist. Uten- 
sils of husbandry, at lirst, rude, perhaps, and misshapen, 
were constructed by the ingenious, to supply that necessity, 
and hence originated an important branch of mechanism, 
and an occasion to amplify the language in use was there- 
by produced, in order to express a new class of objects and 
ideas, which had, until then, had no existence. 

Next in the order of progression towards periods of 
greater illumination, and very early in the morning of the 
world, after Hocks and herds had extensively multiplied, 
and had become a lucrative article of traffick, employment 
was given to a new class of men, called shepherds, whose 
occupation required that they should frequently keep watch 
by night on the oriental plains of Chaldea, Egypt and Pa- 
lestine, under the mild influences of a sky peculiarly bril- 
liant with stars and constellations, which attracted their 
attention from flocks and herds and scenes of the green 
earth, upward to the garniture of the heavens, and induced 
them to take cognizance of the varying seasons, and the 
probable causes of their variation, and to observe the alter- 
ation in the relative positions of the planets. Those worlds 
and suns and systems, which they surveyed, were early dis- 
tinguished by them into clusters, each cluster having its 
particular name assigned to it, according to its real or 
imaginary appearance. Nor did these visible phenomena 
limit their researches, but their active minds soon passed 
from the contemplation of apparent effects, to search for 
hidden causes. As they contemplated those sparkling sub- 
stances, scattered so profusely over the canopy of night, 



14 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

they instituted philosophical inquiries among themselves, 
and endeavored to ascertain how these sustained their po- 
sition in the firmament, from age to age, without any visi- 
ble pillars to support them, and by what secret principle 
their mystic movements were regulated. Thus was laid 
a foundation for the science of astronomy, and hence a new 
set of ideas sprung into existence, and a fresh occasion was 
thereby produced, for amplifying and rendering more com- 
plex the language in use. 

At that period of the world's history, of which we have 
been speaking, the human race had increased greatly, — 
knowledge had probably increased in proportion, and peo- 
ple had begun to form themselves into separate communi- 
ties. These separate communities, in the promotion of 
their separate and individual interests, originated the first 
commercial relations and systems of trafick, and these, again, 
in their turn, gave support to men of genius, encouraged the 
arts, and amplified the stock of human knowledge. 

Cities were first builded by Cain: — Wandering tribes 
were collected together into encampments, by Jabal: — Mu- 
sical instruments were constructed and music was taught 
upon the harp and the organ, by Jubal: — The bosom of 
the earth was explored for valuable metals, by Tubal-Cain, 
who also instructed workmen in all kinds of brass and iron 
manufacture, probably for the purpose of supplying proper 
implements of husbandry, and tools for the various bran- 
ches of mechanism, which men then operated. 

The original language, as we are informed by the histo- 
rian, continued to be the universal language, and was the 
only vehicle of thought, and medium of communication be- 
tween the different tribes of the earth's population, until 
several years after the deluge. For the purpose of keeping 
a vast community together, and acquiring fame among the 
nations, certain aspiring and talented men undertook, up- 
on a spacious plain, to erect a tower of colossal dimensions, 
whose basement should overspread acres, and whose top 
should reach above the clouds. But the Eternal, it seems, 
was displeased with the ambitious projects of those build- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 15 

ers, and, in order most effectually to disappoint their 
schemes, and thwart their views, he confounded their lan- 
guage, so that they could not understand each other, while 
the colossal structure was yet incomplete. Hence origina- 
ted that great diversity of dialects and languages, which 
have since prevailed in the earth, no one of which, perhaps, 
is that pure, original language, which was spoken before 
the building of Babel. This fact of Jewish record, and the 
inference drawn from it, has, I am aware, been disputed by 
some, and sneered at by others, as one of the "cunningly 
devised fables of priestcraft," in order that their system of 
imposture might have the honor of accounting rationally for 
the great diversity and dissimilarity of languages, which 
prevail in the earth. But what fact or truth, in the whole 
scope of facts and truths, has not been disputed and sneered 
ed at, if it have given the least shadow of support to the 
idea, that a Deity reigns: — If it have not testified to the 
correctness of that darksome creed, which writes on the 
the canopy of Heaven, "There is no God:" — And in- 
scribes — "Annihilation" — over the archway of the tomb: 
— And, with one fell swoop, erases all the principles of 
moral obligation from the human mind: — And, in the haunts 
of conviviality, sings the libertine's song, — "Evoe, lo Bac- 
che," or that other song of recklessness, "Let us eat and 
drink, and enjoy ourselves, for to-morrow we die." The 
cavils of such are not worthy of an answer, and we pass 
them in silence. 

Since mankind had, at this period, progressed so far in 
architecture, as to undertake the erection and completion 
of such a splendid and gigantic structure, as was the tower 
of Babel, we may be led to imagine, that they had, by this 
time, made great proficiency in science, and that they 
would almost rival even our own generation. Such, I be- 
lieve, is the impression on the mind of almost every mod- 
ern, who reads the histories of antiquity, and surveys the 
gigantic ruins of ancient towers, and temples, and pyra- 
mids. But such, however, is far from being the fact. The 
more rational conclusion is, that a few men, whom nature 



16 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

had, as she frequently does, endowed with more than com* 
mon abihties, might, by the energies of intellectual supe- 
riority, have directed the whole mass of physical force ne- 
cessary to accomplish that magnificent design: — And the 
majority, at the same time, of the people, who constituted 
that mass of physical force, might have been sunken in the 
profoundest ignorance. Such an order "of things would, 
indeed, have been more favorable than any other, for pro- 
moting the accomplishment of the schemes of the talented 
and the ambitious: — For it stands confessed by all analogy 
and experience, that '•''knowledge is pozcer,'''' and, if that pow- 
er be not equalized among the mass, but be all possessed by 
the few, those few can, it will appear evident, wield and 
concentrate, at pleasure, the whole physical strength of the 
many, to effect some one grand enterprise. And that such 
was the condition of ignorance and servility, in which a 
great proportion of mankind were then held, we infer from 
the fact, that they possessed no advantages like the mod- 
erns, for mental and moral culture. Books and schools 
were then unknown. All their knowledge was derived, 
either from oral tradition, or from actual observation, and 
must liave been extremely limited and imperfect, if we may 
be permitted to form a judgment of their condition, from 
the condition of those barbarian nations, who, in our day, 
possess advantages equal to theirs, longevity excepted. 
Indeed, whatever of historic fact has been hunted up, 
amid the silence and gloom of remote ages, prove that their 
ideas were thus limited and imperfect. Of astronomy, for in- 
stance, their conceptions were extremely erroneous, owing 
to a want of the means, which we now possess, for obtain- 
ing a more certain knowledge. They had neither com- 
pass, nor telescope, nor other instruments, with which as- 
tronomers of the present day are favored, wherewith to 
to call those orbs of heaven down, as it were, from the im- 
measurable depths of blue, where they sparkle at night, 
within the ken of human observation, and there take their 
numbers, and dimensions, and relative distances. Judging 
from the appearance of the visible horizon, which was then, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 17 

indeed, the only criterion, whereby to foum a judgment, 
they supposed that the earth, instead of being spherical, 
and revolving on its axis every twenty-four hours, was a 
vastly extended and an immovable plain, over which, to an 
immeasurable distance above, was bended the arch of the 
heavens, on the outer edges of which plain, the bases of 
this arch rested. 

For the motion and phenomena of the planets, which 
they had observed, as they watched their flocks by night, 
on the plains of the east, the shepherds accounted, in a 
manner equally untrue and unphilosophical. They ima- 
gined, that those lights in the heavens were placed there, for 
the sole comfort and convenience of the inhabitants of this 
globe, and that they, somehow, performed their apparent 
revolutions, in "whirlpools of ether." But upon what phi- 
losophical principle, those shining substances maintained 
their position in the upper firmament, or what causes result- 
ed in the regular alternation of heat and cold, of summer 
and winter, of day and night, or upon what pillars their sup- 
posed plain of the earth rested, they were utterly unable to 
tell, or even rationally to imagine. Could they have been 
transported to Jupiter or Saturn, and have there surveyed 
this globe, dwindled, as it would have been, to a little 
sparkling point, thrown at a vast distance, into the back- 
grounds of the blue canopy, and almost lost amid the im- 
mense profusion of the far off worlds : — Or could they have 
Stood upon this Alpine height of ages, with Herschel's tele- 
scope before their eye, on some starlight evening, they 
would have learned the utter baselessness of their theory, 
and would have considered this green globe, as it w, com- 
paratively, but an insignificant speck in the vast cre^ition. 
But such sublime discoveries were reserved for after and 
higher stages of human progression. 

At what precise period in the remote ages, mankind no 
longer trusted to oral tradition, for the transmission of know- 
ledge, and the history of important events, but began, in 
various ways, to record the fruits of their experience and 
observation, for the information and benefit of posterity, 



18 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

cannot, now, be exactly deteimined. But, very probably, 
soon after the confusion of tongues at Babel, when the 
earth had again become populated to a considerable extent, 
and the length of human life had been materially curtailed, 
so much so as to make a dependence, for the transmission of 
knowledge and events, through the medium of oral tradi- 
tion, very precarious. 

History was first recorded by certain appropriate, and 
to the men of antiquity, intelligible symbols, denominated 
hieroglyphics. These hieroglyphics were engraven by the 
sculptor, upon trees, or stones, or marble pillars called obe- 
lisks. Some of those ancient obelisks have been transport- 
ed from Egypt, whose inhabitants were the fathers and 
promoters of learning, and placed in the Vatican at Rome, 
where they are still to be seen by the antiquarian. 

The Egyptians appear, as I said, to have been the fa- 
thers and promoters of learning. For antiquity, the court 
of the Pharaohs was, comparatively, an enlightened court. 
There Moses, the renowned leader and lawgiver of Israel, 
was nurtured and educated, and there he laid the founda- 
tion of all his greatness. 

When the empire of the Pharaohs was successively over- 
turned by the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, the 
progress of science was checked among them, but their con- 
querors, in turn, profited by their stock of knowledge and 
experience, and increased that stock, by the researches 
and acquisitions of their own scholars. 

At what period the Hebrew alphabet and language, 
which superseded the use of hieroglyphics, was invented, 
or by whom, has not, as I recollect, been precisely ascer- 
tained. Probably, however, by some one of the descend- 
ants of Abraham, if invented at all, soon after their sepa- 
ration from the surrounding nations, and their incorporation 
into a distinct community. We read, however, it will be 
recollected, that, on two tables of stone, the law was writ- 
ten by the finger of God, and now, whether these were not 
the first Hebrew characters or writings, and whether Moses 
was not, during his forty days residence upon the mountain 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 19 

of Sinai, particularly instructed, by the Eternal himself, 
respecting the formation of a national dialect for the Jews, 
and for the transmission of the Holy Oracles, or, whether, 
even before that period, the characters and language had 
been invented, I believe, we are no where definitely in- 
formed. Suflice it, however, to remark, that the Hebrew 
language is considered to be the oldest language, which was 
ever reduced to writing. 

Very early in the ages of antiquity, letters were invented 
by some more than ordinary genius among the Phenicians, 
probably by Cadmus, who brought them into Greece. 
Their number, according to Diodorus Siculus, amounted, 
at first, to sixteen only. To those, four more were added, 
six hundred years before the Christian era, by Simonides, 
and four more by Epicharmus, a Sicilian, five hundred 
years before the Christian era. 

Historians, sages, poets, and orators, began now to com- 
mit their literary productions to writing, for their own bene- 
fit, and the benefit of posterity. At first, palm and other 
leaves were used instead of paper. Upon these. Homer, 
the great Grecian poet, is said to have composed his Iliad. 
His poems, together with the writings of other authors, 
were afterwards committed to parchment, made of a cer- 
tain Egyptian rush called papyrus, which grew on the 
banks of the Nile, or of the skins of animals, dressed smooth 
and pliable. These parchments were so combined togeth- 
er, as to contain volumes, and were rolled up for preserva- 
tion, in the form of scrolls, some of which scrolls are now to 
be seen in the British museum, fifteen or sixteen hundred" 
years old. 

Immense was the labor and expense of committing the 
productions of ancient authors to writing. There were, of 
course, but few copies, scattered here and there over the 
world, at wide intervals, and a volume, which might now 
be procured for the small sum of fifty or seventy-five cents, 
would then have cost three times that number of guineas. 
The consequence must have been, that the poor and la- 
boring classes of the community, in those feudal ages, could 



30 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

have had no access to books, as we have now, because of 
their dearness. Literature was confined mainly to the li- 
braries of the opulent. They held the "key of knowledge," 
and, from it, they "barred and bolted" the common people. 
This knowledge, thus monopolized, to the learned, was 
power! — By means of it, they held unlimited sway over the 
minds of the uneducated populace! — And hence the aristo- 
cratic and feudal character of ancient governments. 

In Greece, when her power was at its zenith, rhetoric and 
oratory, as well as architecture, were extensively studied, 
and so refined did the language become, by the efforts of 
those great scholars and authors, Homer, Demosthenes, 
Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Zenophon, Thucydides, and 
others, that it has been admired by the learned ever since, 
as the most perfect and musical language ever written. 
The first schools of any note were established in this 
country of the muses, and taught by such men as Plato 
and Socrates. But those schools were mainly philosophi- 
cal, and intended for the higher grades of society. By the 
corrupt and tyrannic policies of those ages, as well as by the 
limited means of the commonalty, they were excluded from 
those schools. The consequence was, that, even in that 
land, which has, for ages, been celebrated for its classic 
lore, the mass of the people were ignorant of a great amount 
of knowledge, which is now almost as common as the vital 
air. Hence the principal reason why the Grecian republic 
did not stand, which fact, as well as the present melancho- 
ly ruins of all that was great, and grand, and beautiful, in 
that classic land, should remain as an everlasting beacon- 
light, to warn future generations, in their experiments of 
civil liberty, and admonish them, that, unless the power 
which knowledge confers on its possessor, be equalized, as 
much as possible, among the whole mass of the body politic, 
thus producing a healthful equilibrium of influence, no na- 
tion on earth can long maintain freedom, and sustain free 
institutions. The people will become the dupe and servile 
tool of whatsoever aspiring demagogue may choose "to 
boot and spur himself for the occasion, and ride them into 
power." 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 81 

When the Grecian republic was overthrown by the eupe- 
rior power of the Roman arms, the arts and sciences were 
transplanted into Italy, and flourished there in the court 
and schools of the Caesars. Rome produced her Virgils 
and her Ciceros, the first of poets and of orators. Rheto- 
ric, architecture, painting and sculpture, were cultivated to 
a great extent of refinement. As one aptly and elegantly 
expresses it, " they could almost make the marble speak^ — 
could almost make the brook murmur down the painted 
landscape." Yet, even here too — in the midst of literary 
productions, which the scholar can never cease to admire, 
so long as the grand and beautiful in composition shall com- 
mand admiration, and splendid edifices, the ruins of which 
the antiquarian will for ever gaze at with wonder — was ig- 
norance the most sottish; and, as a legitimate consequence, 
the arch conspirators, — the Catalines and the Cassars, could 
plot against the liberties of their country, and the many 
were made the menial slaves and subservients of th^ few. 
Let these facts, these examples, admonish those who have 
the "key of knowledge" in these United States, not to 
withhold it from the common people, — the bone and sinew 
of our republic: — Let them admonish the statesman, the 
conservator of the public safety, that — ^" ne quid respublica 
detrimenti caperet" — that " he should take care that the 
republic receive no detriment," and, in order to promote 
its lasting duration, that he should disseminate information, 
as extensively as possible among the populace. 

We perceive by this hasty review of the past, that during 
the first three or four thousand years of the world, the great 
mass of mankind were destitute of those literary advan- 
tages, which are now almost as common as the vital air* 
Very few discoveries were, of course, brought forth to light 
from the vast arcana of science, for very little encourage- 
ment was given to the spirit of literary enterprize, and 
those improvements which were made, were of minor con- 
sequence, except the invention of letters and language. 
With his frail bark, the mariner, in those days, ventured 
not far upon the ocean for the want of the compass to guide 



22 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

him, and the fountains of learning were very small, and 
watered only, here and there, .an isolated portion of the 
earth, owing to the want of the press, that great flood gate 
of knowledge, which is continually pouring such a deluge 
of moral and intellectual light over the world. In those 
days of darkness and ignorance, the few controlled the 
wealth of empires, and the physical force of the cringing 
populace, and could, indeed, by using them at pleasure, con- 
struct their gigantic pyramids, and mausoleums, and tem- 
ples of Jupiter, Diana, Neptune, Mars, and others, and 
their aqueducts, and amphitheatres, and triumphal arches, 
the description of which excites the astonishment, and calls 
forth the admiration of the moderns. But, notwithstand- 
ing the vast expenditure of strength and treasure, in the 
construction of those magnificent artificial curiosities, works 
of far superior public utility were left undone, the majority 
of the human race were not benefited, nor the best inte- 
rests of mankind thereby advanced; for, had this expense, 
incurred to gratify the ostentatious pride of petty lord- 
lings, been incurred in educating the mass of public mind, 
grander results would have been the consequence, than the 
antiquarian ever hunted up among the ruins of the past. 

But, in our review of human progression, we are begin- 
ning to emerge from the twilight of the antediluvian and 
remote ages, and are coming upon a brilliant track of illu- 
mination, enterprize and discovery. 

Some of the evidences and results of the superiority of 
the moderns over the ancients, in regard to knowledge, li- 
terary privilege, and invention, we shall merely glance at, 
lest we should exceed our prescribed limits, and so pass on 
to a conclusion. 

Then, first in the order of improvements, we shall notice 
the Mariner's Compass, a very important nautical instru- 
ment, invented by Flavio da Melfi, a Neapolitan, in the 
year of the Christian era, thirteen hundred and two. Pre- 
vious to that auspicious event, and to the discovery of the 
peculiar properties of the magnet, the wary seaman sailed 
his vessel cautiously along the shore, and dared not to ven- 



LKCTiniKS ON EDUCATION* 23 

ture far away from the sight of land, upon the wide ocean, 
which seemed to him an impassable barrier. But nozo the 
scene changes. He spreads his canvass to the breezes. He 
woos the favoring gale, which is to hurry him quickly away 
from the sight of his native shores and mountains. Guided 
by his faithful magnet, he leaves the land " far, far behind 
him," and he holds onward in his course, for weeks, and even 
months, through the wide waste of waters, without a glimpse 
of land to tell him where he is; and yet, so perfect has his 
art become, that, at any given moment, he can tell the lati- 
tude and longitude of the spot he occupies. One impor- 
tant effect of that invention was, the discovery of the happy 
country where we now dwell; because, had it not been for 
the unerring guidance of the compass, through calm and 
through storm, Columbus, notwithstanding his skill in the 
art of navigation, and the dauntless intrepidity of his cha- 
racter, could never have found his way across the ocean, 
from Europe to Hispaniola. 

' It is a natural and legitimate inference from the historic 
facts we have been reviewing, that information must, in an- 
cient days, have been extremely limited in its circulation, 
owing to the immense labor and expense requisite to com- 
pose books, and the consequent high prices at which they 
must have been sold, to defray costs and remunerate the 
author. Now, an invention, which could effectually remove 
out of the way such an obstruction to the extensive dis- 
semination of knowledge among the common people, and 
which would both multiply and cheapen books, not only 
very materially, but to an extent almost surpassing belief 
or computation, must then, or at any other period of the 
world, have been regarded as of incalculable consequence. 
Such was the art of Printing, invented by Laurentius, an 
European of Harlaem, in the year of the Christian era, 
fourteen hundred and forty, and, ever since that period, the 
grand discovery has been held in the highest estimation. 
Such, indeed, have been its results, that human conception 
could scarcely surpass their grandeur. The influence of 
those results, upon the condition of the world, has been 



34 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

amazing, and almost beyond the power of numbers to cal- 
culate; yea, the Press has ever been, still is, and will un- 
doubtedly continue to the end of time to be, an engine of 
MIGHTY rowER. Just bcforc the period of its invention, 
was the gloomiest time the world ever saw. It was em- 
phatically, as it has been denominated, " the iron age,—" 
the heyday of ignorance, bigotry, priestcraft, and despotism. If 
ever the powers of darkness put on the robes of angelic 
light, and clothed themselves with the garb of priestly sanc- 
tity, and held, on earth, the grand carnival of the pit, — it 
was then. The " key of knowledge" was wrenched away 
from the common people, and locked up in the cloisters of 
the monastery and the convent ; and that " doctrine of de- 
vils," that " ignorance is the mother of devotion," was every 
where inculcated, and the laity were warned by the thun- 
dering anathemas from the Vatican, that it was the very 
acme of sacrilege to think for themselves, or to desire 
knowledge. 

But about the sixteenth century, there was wrought a 
mighty change. Erasmus, Melancthon, and their associ- 
ates, arose, in the might of unshorn Samsons, and unbar- 
red the portals of the scientific arcana, and brought forth 
the classics to the light of day, and poured the streams of 
ancient learning through all the channels of public thought, 
and feeling, and opinion. Luther, the great reformer of 
Germany, at the same time, seized, with a giant's power, 
the Press, and wielded its resistless force against the cor- 
ruption and gigantic strength of Popery, as Popery existed 
in the fifteenth century. With it, he poured the full blaze 
of truth into the dark dungeons of the Inquisition, and let 
in the effulgence of daylight upon the racks, and groans, 
and agonies, and protracted death of that worse than purga- 
torial hell. — With it, he made the seat of the Roman Beast 
tremble, and shook that kingdom of spiritual darkness to its 
center! Nor was the power of the Press alone tested, in 
the exposition of priestcraft, and the destruction of error. 
Before the flood-tide of light and truth, — before the resist- 
less stream of free and fearless inquiry, which it has been 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 95 

pouring over the world, the thrones of despotism have been 
crumbling,' and tottering, and falling around, until verv few 
remain firm and unshaken, and soon all will be swept along 
downward to the gulf of oblivion, and be as though they 
had' never been. The people, electrified by the influence 
of the Press, are every where waking up from the long, le- 
thargic sleep of ages. In almost every clime under hea- 
ven's canopy, they are beginning to assert, and valiantly to 
maintain — " liberty^ marl's inalienable birth-right.'''' 

Perhaps it would be proper here to remark, that the Press 
is capable of doing immense mischief. When controlled 
by unprincipled men, crafty politicians, and designing de- 
magogues, it has sometimes done such mischief, that hu- 
manity has long mourned and shed tears of bitterness over 
its results. 

In like manner, the elements occasionally do mischief, 
and those operations of nature, whose general tendency is 
to bless, may sometimes prove a curse; yet, they are benefi- 
cial, all things considered, and may even be absolutely es- 
sential to the support of animal and vegetable existence. 
What though the river sometimes bursts over its embank- 
ments: — Would any one, therefore, dry up that river? 
What though the rays of the sun cherish noxious weeds,' 
as well as nutritious plants: — Would any one, therefore, 
quench those rays? What though the red bolt sometimes 
bursts upon the head of its victim: — W^hat though the fire 
sometimes gains the mastery, and lays the hamlet or the 
city in ashes: — What though the deluge sometimes sweeps 
away mills and bridges, and desolates the land: — What 
though the wind sometimes prostrates forests and buildings, 
in its course, or lashes ocean into foam and fury, and 
whelms the fated mariner beneath the mountain surges: — 
Are they not all, nevertheless, absolutely necessary? Could 
man, or beast, or vegetable, or reptile, live without them? 
We answer — No: — For, if it were not for the lightning, 
the air would become putrid with contagion; — or for the 
fire, an atmosphere of iciness would congeal the world; — 
or for the storm, the fountains and streamlets would all dry 
4 



26 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

up; — or for the wind, the ocean would become a mass of 
waveless, stagnant, deadly water. 

So the Press may sometimes prove a curse. It is liable 
to abuse. Managed by men who care nothing for the gen- 
eral welfare, but seek only to further private, selfish aims, 
it may, and does, sometimes, become a pernicious evil, and 
scatters the poison of error through the community. Yet, 
after all, the substantial benefit produced by it far more 
than counterbalances the evil, and such is the redeeming 
spirit of the age, that those abuses, which do exist, some- 
times, falsely denominated, '•'•freedom of the press,'''' will, 
eventually, be destroyed, like mushroom excrescences, be- 
fore an overwhelming tide of enlightened and purified pub- 
lic sentiment. The Press will, then, indeed, be powerfully 
instrumental in advancing the best interests of society, and 
will, like the screw and lever of Archimedes, raise the en- 
tire world of mind to its proper dignity. 



LECTURE 1. 

PART II.* 
SUBJECT PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. 

The next great invention of genius, was the telescope. 
The first was constructed bj GalUleo, the son of a Floren- 
tine nobleman, near the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, which magnified twenty-five times. Immediately 
after its invention, mankind began to acquire justcr and 
more rational ideas, respecting the v*orld they inhabited, 
and that sparkling maze of wonder and glory around it, 
which the cloudless night reveals. The learned, behold- 
ing, in the blaze of the new light thrown upon the subject, 
the erroneousness of ancient systems of astronomj^, assigned 
them to oblivion, and adopted new systems in their stead, 
founded upon more rational and philosophical principles. 
The distances and bulk of the planets were calculated with 
minute exactness, — their motions were philosophically ac- 
counted for, — eclipses were foretold even to the detinite- 
ness of a single moment, — and, after the gradual improve- 
ments in that instrument, by which the apparent magnitude 
of the stars is, now, increased nine hundred times, — and, 
by the efforts of such men as Newton, Herschel, and others, 
the science has been brought to a high degi-ee of perfec- 
tion. About eighty millions of suns have been discovered, 
like our sun, in size and lustre, having, undoubtedly, an in- 
numerable number of opaque bodies, like this earth, re- 
volving around their attractive and vivifying influences. 

But time would fail me to describe the various improve- 
ments which have been made, since the ushering in of the 
new eras of intelligence, which began to dawn upon the 
dark ages in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centu- 

* The two first Lectures of the series, being somewhat longer than was 
anticipated by the author, are divided for the reader's accommodation. 



28 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ries. Their effects, in facilitating the intercourse of socie- 
ty, and in assisting man in the arts of life, surpass deline- 
ation in a work as limited as this. So many and various 
are they, that a description of them, in detail, would fill 
volumes. So rapid have they been of late, that they have 
ceased to excite the surprise their occurrence used to ex- 
cite, and are regarded in the light of common-place inci- 
dents. 

Now, when wc look around upon the goodly and impro- 
ving prospect, v.e are led, naturally, to inquire— "What 
mighty agent, under Providence, has effected all this, and 
effected it so rapidly? What mighty agent is still at work, 
with a pov/er and efficiency, increasing hourly, and mo- 
mently, by a vast momentum?" '•'■Education,'''' is the an- 
swer — "Education, moral and intellectual.^^ 

We have seen, by glancing our eye down the long vista 
of ages past, and reviewing the history of years passed 
away, that the light of science has, ever since its rising, 
been growing brighter and brighter. But, though its light 
has been, constantly, increasing, it has not yet, by anj 
means, attained to the meridian splendors of a perfect 
day: — Though the tide of knowledge has been swelling 
over the globe, it has not yet "covered the earth, as the 
v/aters fill the channels of the great deep." Improvements 
are yet to be ctTected — discoveries are yet to be made in 
art and science — wonders are yet to be brought to light, 
in the broad fields of philosophy, and in the untraveled wil- 
dernesses of thought, which, doubtless, shall astonish the 
world, and which, could they now pass in review before 
the mental vision of the present generation, would almost 
incline them to discredit the evidence, even, of their own 
senses. Wc infer this from analogy. Who would have 
believed, fifty years ago, that, in the year eighteen hundred 
and thirty-three, the waters of our lakes and rivers would 
have been navigated, with great velocity, against both 
wind and tide and current? Yet, such is now the fact, the 
incredulity of our fathers, fifty years ago, to the contrary 
notwithstanding; and agents, now unknown, will, in fifty, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 29 

twenty, yea, even ten years hence, be brought into opera- 
tion, as powerful as the agent of steam, the incredulity of 
the present generation to the contrary notwithstanding. 

While the march of the generation is onward, steadily, 
and rapidly, in o//ifir departments, we may, also, reasonably 
anticipate, that improvements will be made in the art of 
communicating knordedgc to others — in the science of teach- 
ings which are not, at present, even dreamed of, much less 
anticipated as probabilities, and whicli, should one predict, 
that prediction would subject him to the charge of enthu- 
siasm.. 

Judging from late and passing events, the progress of com- 
munity is likely to exceed our most sanguine expectations. 
We infer this from the fact, that the whole machinery of 
society, moral, political, and scientific, seems to be in mo- 
tion — not with the tardiness of previous years, but with a 
swiftness so vastly accelerated, compared with its motion 
formerly, that the transactions, and events, and mutations 
of years, are, frequently, crowded into the short compass of 
two or three months, or even days. Is a revolution to be 
effected? — Is a scepter to be wrenched away from the grasp 
of a despot? — Is a throne to be demolished? — xA.re the en- 
tire policies of a nation to be changed? — The work, instead 
of requiring, as formerly, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, for 
accomplishment, is, — without preparation — without con- 
cert — without an organized soldiery — without the guidance 
of experienced generalship, — effected in Jive, or even 
THREE days! Such wcrc the late revolutions of Warsaw 
and Paris, and such will yet be many a revolution — not 
only political, but — intellectual and moral: — For, we have 
reason to infer from the signs of the times, that this accele- 
ration will be increased rather than diminished^ as we ap- 
proach towards the consummation of human science. 

As we have, thus far, reviewed the progress of mankind 
in education, it may be well, now, to notice the present con- 
dition of schools. 

In Germany, Switzerland, and some other parts of Eu- 
rope, particular attention has been bestowed, of late, upon 



30 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the education of youth, and commendable exertions have 
been made to elevate the standard of public instruction, 
and to correct the defects which exist in present systems. 
Scholars have engaged v^ith glowing enthusiasm in the 
work, and men of high standing in society — men, possessed 
of superior intellects and well versed in all the learning of 
the ancient and modern schools, have not considered it hu- 
miliation to engage with ardent devotion in cultivating the 
immortal mind. Thus has education, in those trans-atlan- 
tic countries, first assumed its proper rank — the rank of 
a science — a distinct prof ession as it ought, as much as either 
of the other principle professions of medicine, law, and di- 
vinity. This profession has formed the subject of lectures 
in universities, and institutions have been founded devoted 
exclusively to the instruction and preparation of teachers. 
"The works," say the "Annals of Education," "written in 
those foreign countries on the science of Pedagogy, as it is 
termed, are as voluminous and as able as those upon the 
science of Chemistry; and numerous periodicals are entire- 
ly employed in recording the progress and describing the 
improvements in education." Since learning was revived 
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there have been 
four distinct stages of progressive advancement in educa- 
tion, each of which has been popular in its day. The 
Humanists, as they were termed, from their zealous efforts 
to revive learning, and thus to subserve the cause of hu- 
manity, "brought the classics out from the libraries of the 
cloisters, where they had been buried" during the dark 
ages, and inculcated the necessity of studying these, almost 
to the exclusion of other important studies, in order to lay 
the foundation of a thorough education. 

About the middle of the last century, the school of the 
Humanists, which had long held the sway over the literati 
in Germany, was opposed by a school termed the Philan- 
thropists, founded upon the very reverse of its principles.* 
"Disgusted with the extravagant manner in which ancient 
languages were extolled, they were led to examine into the 

♦Annals of Education. 



liECTUKES ON EDUCATION. 31 

foundations of their pretensions. While they yielded the 
palm to the ancients, in all that relates to matters of taste 
and beauty, they maintained that this superiority arose from 
the fact, that the ancients derived their views directly 
from the inspection of nature and the obsi^rvation of man, 
instead of occupying themselves, as we do, with the mere 
pictures of them drawn by others; — they pointed to the ob- 
vious truth, that the world is older and vastly more expe- 
rienced than it was two thousand years ago; — that in re- 
gard to all that relates to human knowledge, the present 
generation are really the ancients. They contended that 
the youth of the present century is wiser, in regard to eve- 
ry subject of science, than the sage of Rome or Athens; — 
and that the means of improvement and enjoyment, which 
the experience of twenty centuries has procured for us, 
place us far beyond them in all that relates to the well- 
being of society, and the happiness of individuals, without 
even taking into view the sublime and elevating system, 
the doctrines and precepts presented to us in the Scriptures, 
in comparison with which, notwithstanding their many 
beauties, the philosophy of Greece and the mythology of 
Rome appear only like masses of folly and superstition, 
abounding with examples of disgusting licentiousness and 
horrid cruelty. But they were more occupied with the 
singular inefficiency and striking defects of those who thus 
lived and breathed in the atmosphere of antiquity, in all 
that relates to the practical and useful purposes of life. 
They believed that much time was lost by the indiscriminate 
and exclusive use of the classics as the foundation of educa- 
tion, which ought to be spent in the acquisition of practical 
knowledge; and that by this tedious and laborious task, 
without any perceptible advantage to the pupil, they were 
often disgusted with every species of intellectual effort. 
They also pointed out the moral corruption, which arises 
from many of the examples and sentiments of the ancients, 
and especially disapproved of that discipline of compulsion 
and violence, by which children have been forced to this 
i^ngrateful employment. They urged the importance of 



32 LECTURES ON EDUCATIOIV. 

leading by the attraction of knowledge itself, rather than 
by force. They paid much attention to the developement 
of the bodily constitution and powers, and professed to aim 
at forming ??ien, and not mere scholars. But with the ordi- 
nary weakness of human nature, in avoiding one extreme, 
they ran into the opposite. They forgot the valuable in- 
fluence of those studies, properly regulated, upon the facul- 
ties and habits of the mind. In seeking to render their 
pupils practical men, they employed them in accumulating 
a large mass of facts and principles in nature and in life, 
in the shortest and easiest, and most agreeable modes, convert- 
ing that labor, which was necessary to invigorate the mind, 
and to prepare it to encounter the toils and efforts of life 
with cheerfulness and patience, into mere play, and tilling 
it with a magazine of materials, instead of preparing it by 
the proper mode of exercise, as an instrument for em- 
ploying them in the best manner." They seemed to lose 
sight of the fact, that the object of almost all study is, or 
should be, not only the attainment of knowledge simply and 
purely considered as such, but the discipline, invigoration 
and developement of the mental faculties by means of ex- 
ercise. Within certain prudential limits, the more vigorous 
the exercise, the better. The teacher of youth should pro- 
ceed upon the principle of tasking the pupil in his investi- 
gations to the utmost of his ability, and never beyond it, 
and should in no wise permit him to call upon Hercules to 
put his shoulder to the wheel when he can lift it out him- 
self. For only by such management does the pupil avoid 
habits of indolence in scientific investigations, and acquire 
those habits of unyielding perseverance in application, 
which can alone produce the great scholar and the great 
man, so then those simplified theories of any of the scien- 
ces which are intended to save the pupil the labor of in- 
tense thinking and of patient persevering investigation, 
and to nurse that disposition to playful habits which is natu- 
ral to the buoyancy of youth, is radically and entirely er- 
roneous. 

"Notwithstanding their error, the Philanthropists of Ger- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 66 

many unquestionably exerted much influence on the improve- 
menf of education. The extravagant views of the Humanists 
were considerably modified; and although many still retain 
the exclusive maxims of their predecessors, many admit, as 
stated in the German "Conversations Lexicon," that "a/Z 
should be embraced in education which can promote the for- 
mation of the man a^id prepare him for the eternal destiny of his 
spirit.'''' 

The third stage of progressive improvement in educa- 
tion was the school of Pestalozzi, which succeeded the school 
of the Philanthropists. Perhaps no one person has ever exert- 
ed such a powerful and benign influence upon the destinies 
of the rising generation as Pestalozzi, the founder of this in- 
stitution. He adopted into his system many of the opinions 
of the two preceding schools, but studiously avoided their ex- 
tremes. That discipline of the philanthropic school, which 
develops the bodily powers, and has a view to practical 
utility, he combined with that peculiar discipline of his own 
school, which, unlike theirs, develops also the mind itself: — 
But perhaps by adopting this latter discipline somewhat too 
' extensively, he verged towards another extreme, by giving 
"the elements of form and number as combined in the science 
of Mathematics^ in Language and in JVatural History^'' that 
preponderance in practice which was unfavorable to the regu- 
lar and harmonious cultivation of other powers. Pestalozzi, 
however,* "produced an impulse which pei'vaded the conti- 
nent of Europe, and which, by means of his popular and theo- 
retical works, reached the cottages of the poor, and the pala- 
ces of the great. His institution at Yverdun was crowded 
with men of every nation, not merely those who were led by 
the same benevolence which inspired him, but by agents of 
kings and noblemen and public institutions, who came to 
make themselves acquainted with his principles, in order to 
become fellow-laborers in his plans of benevolence. 

It is to these companions of his labors, most of whom resi- 
ded in Germany and Switzerland, that we owe the forma- 
tion of another school, the fourth stage of progressive im- 

*Vide Annals of Education. 
5 



34 LECTURES ON EDUCATION* 

provement, which has been styled the Productive School; and 
which now predominates in Germany and Switzerland. It 
might, perhaps, with equal propriety be termed the Eclectic 
School; for it aims at embodying all the valuable principles 
of previous sj'stems, without adhering slavishly to the dictates 
of any master, or the views of any party. It rejects alike 
the idolatrous homage to the classics, which was paid by the 
Humanists — the unreasonable prejudices of the Philanthro- 
pists against classical and merely literary pursuits — and the 
undue predilection for the mere expansion of mind to the 
neglect of positive knowledge and practical application, 
which characterized too many of the Pestalozzian school. 

"The leading principle of this system is that which its 
name indicates — that the child should be regarded, not as a 
mere recipient of the ideas of others, but as an agent, capa- 
ble of collecting and originating and producing most of the 
ideas which are necessary for its education Avhen presented 
with the objects or the facts from which they may be derived. 
While on the one hand they are careful not to reduce the 
pupil to a mere machine, to be moved by the will of his 
instructor, in an assigned direction, or a mass of passive mat- 
ter to be formed by him, according to his own favorite model ; 
they are equally careful to avoid the extreme into which 
some of the preceding schools have fallen, of leaving him to 
wander indefinitely in a Avrong direction, in search of truth, 
in order to secure to him the merit of discovery." To the 
celebrated Fellenberg, of Switzerland, probably more than 
to any other man, is to be imputed the principal agency in 
founding and giving currency to the sentiments of this school. 
By his experiments and writings, together with the experi- 
ments and Avritings, and zealous offorts of Pestalozzi, and 
other celebrated practical instructors of foreign countries, a 
new impulse has been given to the cause of common educa- 
tion in these United States. In many parts of the land, 
public attention is awakened to the palpable deficiencies 
which exist in the present "modus operandi," and entire sys- 
tem of instruction. The general opinion, I might say, in- 
deed, the vnivasal opinion, where men have access to means 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 35 

of inforniaiioi), on the subject, seems to be that the present 
constitution of schools, from first to last — from the key-stone 
to the foundation — with all its dependencies and in almost all 
its bearings — is radically erroneous; and, indeed, that opinion 
is confirmed hy the daily experience and observation of us 
all. 

Now a volume on this subject, which would, with nice 
discrimination and with all faithfulness, expose defects, and 
which would, out of the present chaotic mass of material — out 
of this "confusion worse confounded," — reduce education to a 
regular and definite science, founded upon philosophical prin- 
ciples and invariable laws of human nature, would, since a 
spirit of inquiry on the subject, has gone forth through the 
nation, be considered by all, and especially by parents — a 
desideratum. And I see not why such a volume may not be 
produced, as well as standard works on the sciences of Medi- 
cine, Law, and Divinity: — And I see not, why there may not 
be given to this science as much definiteness and regu- 
larity, and even more, than to those sciences. For, if I am 
right in judging of the future, from the enterprising spirit and 
progressive improvements of tlie present age, it is not visiona- 
ry to anticipate, and believe, that our schools will, at a time 
not very far distant, be entirely remodeled upon a correct and 
permanent basis, and children within the same period, and at 
the same expense as now, be taughtj?re, and sometimes even 
ten times the unwunt of actual available knowledge they are 
at present. 

It is but too common, 1 am aware, that when innovations 
upon old established customs are proposed, or important 
improvements are suggested, let those customs be as erro- 
neous as they may, and those improvements theoretically 
based upon principles of common sense and logically sustain- 
ed by incontrovertible argument, many — very many, will 
sneer at them, and cry out — '•'■visionary .'" '-''impracticable /" "m- 
possihle r without assigning any better reason for their ill- 
omened prophecies, than the stale remark — "It has long 
been thus and so, and must therefore continue still to be so, 
all efforts to the contrary, notwithstanding" — which is most 



36 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

excellent logic ! But it is ardently hoped that improvements, 
which may be proposed in the modus operandi of education, 
since they are so much needed and so vastly important, may 
not be opposed with such logic; for mankind ought by this 
time to have learned this stubborn fact from the history of the 
past, that the most important improvements, which have ever 
been made in science, have uniformly been in this very same 
way most violently opposed, so long as opposition was at all 
available. 

In order to effect those proposed improvements, every man 
in the community must not only be convinced by rational 
arguments of their necessity and practicability^ but must also 
lend his assistance to the great and immensely important work 
— must bring the whole weight of his energies to bear down 
upon that lever, which is destined to raise an entire world of 
immortals to the proper dignity of intelligent and deathless 
beings. The effort of one individual, or of a, few individuals, 
cannot effect the mighty enterprise : — No ! All must be com- 
bined, and then it will be easily and speedily accomplished. 

The present lecture is but the introduction to a series of 
lectures upon defects in present systems of education — upon 
proper remedies for those defects — and upon such other mat- 
ters relating to the proper management of schools and the 
welfare of the rising generation, as shall be likely to com- 
mend the subjects at least, if not the work itself to the attention 
of all classes in the community, who desire to promote the 
best interests of the rising generation: — and if the author 
succeed not in making the volume that ^'■desideratum''^ which 
he wishes, he will at least make it what he can, and should he 
but be instrumental in awakening a fresh impulse in the pub- 
lic mind, he will have the satisfaction to reflect that his 
labors have not been altogether in vain. 

The work will consist principally of the results of the 
author's personal experience and observation for fifteen years' 
public service as a teacher in different parts of the union, 
during which period he has seen and felt the deleterious influ- 
ence of most of the defects which he exposes — has heard and 
noted down the remarks upon this subject of many intelli- 



i^:t 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 37 

gent and observing men — has occasionally tested by partial 
experiments and seen the benefit of certain improvements — 
and he now embodies the whole in the form of a volume and 
offers it to the public. 

Nor will he depend alone upon his own stock of informa- 
tion on the subject, but will avail himself so far as is prac- 
ticable of the experience and observations of others* He 
will have recourse to the gymnasian systems of Germany — ■ 
to the plans of Pestalozzi, Fellenberg and their associates of 
Switzerland — to the suggestions of Lancaster, Hall and 
Miss Beecher — to Woodbridge's "Annals of Education" — 
and to all the various journals which notice the improvements 
of the day. Out of all these he will glean whatsoever, accord- 
ing to his best judgment, is correct; yet, however, intending 
not to forego his own opinion, nor to defer it to the authority 
of any person's "ipse dixW : — and by so doing, he will proba- 
bly, in some cases, depart from the track of all his predeces- 
sors, and broach theories in a measure novel. If he does so, 
he asks the reader's candid investigation of the ground upon 
which he takes his stand — of the principles upon which his 
theory is based and the argiaments by which it is supported; 
and if, by strict investigation, he find those principles to be 
correct and those arguments to be logical, let him award to 
them his decided approbation. 

Before bringing this introduction to a close, I feel constrain- 
ed to remark that this subject must have an important bear- 
ing upon OUT political destinies as a nation ; /for I am persuaded 
beyond the shadow of a doubt, fi'om the coihbined and uniform 
testimony of all analogy, that, unless the most vigorous efforts 
be made to inform tliemass of public mind, and pour the illu- 
mination of science and the redeeming influence of good 
morals into every cottage and hamlet and hovel throughout 
the whole length and breadth of the republic, our country is 
LOST ! If the sovereign joeop/c — if the independent voters, who 
control the destinies of this Union, be not enlightened^ they 
will be bought and sold like cattle in the political market — be 
made the dupes of bribery and the subservient tools of aspir- 
ing demagogues: — And, if this be the case, I care not how 



38 LECTURKS ON Et)UCATI01N. 

wide spread and powerful our republic, nor how free our in- 
stitutions, both will /a// together^ and great will be their fall. — 
Yes, the glories which now blaze around them will go out in 
everlasting darkness; — The temple of liberty and the temple 
of science will alike sink^ while up through the chasm where 
they disappear will arise, like some furious Alecto from the 
nether regions. Superstition with her rack and stake and fire- 
brand — Bigotry with her lash of scorpions— and Priestcraft 
with his sanctimonious face but hellish heart: — "The deep and 
dark foundations of the Inquisition will be laid on these 
shores ; — and the hollow winds of midnight will sigh a funeral 
dirge overall our departed greatness. / 
^ But let the sovereign people — the independent voters, be 
enlightened — let a healthful current of purified moral senti- 
ment be poured tlirough all the channels of public thought 
and opinion and feeling, and the patriot and the philanthro- 
pist and the honest statesman may then dismiss their fears. — 
The republic will, then, Mdthstand the shock of party strife, 
and our free institutions Avill be perpetuated in all their free- 
ness, to the latest posterity. The public, enlightened upon 
the subject of their rights and privileges and imperative 
duties, as citizens, upon whose suffrages is staked the "weal or 
woe" of their country, will as a body politic, prompted by 
high-toned principles of integrity and virtue, think and act 
for themselves^ uninfluenced by hrihery — think and act with 
decision — and think and act rightly. Yes, — public senti- 
ment being enlightened and purified, every new theory of 
politics — every fresh candidate for ofiice, will have to undergo 
the intense scrutiny of a thousand investigators. This senti- 
ment will be the Argus with his "hundred eyes," who will 
watch night and day over the destinies of our rising and far- 
spreading republic — will be a trumpetrtongued angel of 
mercy to sound the alarm through the land when danger 
approaches — will he a Brutus to all aspiring Cassars — a Luther 
to all Popery — a Samson to demolish the temples of super- 
stition — and a Hercules, with his war-club, to break the hydra 
heads of eri-or. 

Finally, standing where I do, with the visions and proba- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 39 

bilities of the future bursting on my sight — beholding on the 
one hand the freedom and happiness and perpetuity of the 
repubUc, stretching away into beautiful and endless perspec- 
tive; and, on the other hand, looking over the precipice of 
disunion — "down — dozen — down" — ten thousand times ten 
thousand fathoms into the dark abyss of anarchy below, — 
I would exhort the parent,.with all the persuasion such a pros- 
pect would be apt to inspire — "If you wish not to see these 
states belligerent — rivei's of fraternal blood jflowing through 
the land — demagogues wading through seas of crimson gore, 
and trampling over mounds of human flesh in their way to 
empire — yea, and your own sons made "hewers of wood and 
drawers of water" for the king, the parasite and the cour- 
tier — educate them — by all means educate them." 

"Judges, Legislators, Statesmen — ye, who hold the helm of 
the political bark and have it in charge "nequid respublica 
detrimenti caperet," look at the warning signals on the banks 
of the Tiber — see the beacon-light flaming over the Helles- 
pont — behold the bones of shipwrecked, castaway republics 
whitening on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Archi- 
pelago. Sleep not. There are rocks and quicksands in 
your course. There may be storms rising. We have heard 
the heavy thunder rumbling at a distance — have seen the 
lightning of excited passion and civil discord flash. I^ook 
well to the condition of your ship; for it may put in requisi- 
tion all your skill to save her, as she will undoubtedly have 
soon to weather some tremendous storms and furious gales. 

"In all your public acts and private walks, lend your influ- 
ence to the dissemination of education: — Expel Ignorance 
from the land, for she is a sworn frien^ of the demagogue 
and a foe to liberty. In order that the freedom of elections 
may be preserved free and untrammeled, and it be rendered 
impossible for the independent voters to be biased in their 
sufflages or in their preferences hy political intrigue or bri- 
bery, make schools the nurseries of patriotism and high- 
toned moral feeling: — And the vessel of state may then 
ride safe over the tempestuous billows of party strife and 
sectional jealousies, and on her standnrd "spread all over 



40 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

with characters of livhig light, blazing on all its ample folds 
as they float over the land and over the sea, and in every 
wind under the whole heaven, will be distinctly legible that 
sentiment dear to every true American heart — "Liberty and 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 



LECTURE IL 

SUBJECT ERRORS IN PRESENT SVSTEMS OF COMMON EDUCATION* 

A surgeon, when called to administer to a patient affected 
with a diseased limb, first examines critically the parts affect- 
ed, and satisfies himself as to the whole extent of the patient's 
danger, before he gives his opinion of the case or applies a 
remedy: — Or the physician, who visits a person under the 
influence of a burning fever or of some other dangerous mal- 
ady, first marks the quickness or feebleness of the pulsations, 
and takes notice of the peculiar symptoms and phenomena 
of the disease, before he gives directions: — So should the 
author, who assumes the task of prescribing for present sickly 
systems of public instruction, first examine and describe, 
with all fidelity and plainness, the numerous and multiform 
errors which are every where apparent, in a greater or 
lesser degree, in the whole modus operandi of education, and 
which deform and mar the symmetry of our free institutions; 
in order that the community may be fully aware of the 
injury which must be sustained, and the dangers which are 
to be apprehended, unless they speedily and with one accord 
unite to correct those errors, and thus prevent the evil which 
must otherwise inevitably be the result. 

Did we, without possessing a knowledge of facts in the 
case, read alone the encomiums bestowed upon education by 
journalists and authors, or hear it made the subject of remark 
in the halls of legislation, or listen to the very common- 
place observations of thousands in all the different stations in 
society respecting its vast and vital importance, we should be 
led to believe that all classes of society, en masse., regarded 
it as indispensably necessary to the welfare and happiness of 
man, and desired with deepest intensity that its dissemina- 
tion and benign influence might be co-extensive with the boun- 
6 



4'2 J.ECTHRES ON EDUCATIOX. 

(laries of human halntation. But when wc go forth through 
the length and breadth of the land, and examine schools crit- 
ically, and take cognizance of the actual interest manifested 
in their prospeiitj^ and high elevation by the mass of the 
public, we become convinced of the ya/5ene55 of such conclu- 
sions, and discover an amount and an extent of apathy as 
to the character and usefulness of common schools, which we 
little expected. Although the benefits of education exten- 
tensively disseminated are acknowledged and advocated and 
extolled by journalists and authors and legislators, as the 
grand panacea which can alone save the republic from dis- 
solution; yet well regulated common schools are regarded 
with an interest in no wise commensurate with their immense 
value, since these are the minor fountains of knowledge, at 
which the great mass of the community drink in that quan- 
tum of science, and receive that mental bias, and the impress 
of those ideas, which must have an essential bearing upon 
national prosperity, and sway the destinies of the Union. 

This indifference manifests itself in various ways, and 
results from various causes. But in nothing is it so plainly 
obvious as in the pvpvailing disposition, on the part of the 
public, to select Instructors of schools with a reference to 
their cheapness alone, rather than to their qualifications. — 
Relationship to those to whom is delegated the authority to 
engage teachers, or something equally unconnected with 
character, literature or ability to teach, determines, in very 
many instances, the choice of an instructor. > And when he 
is selected and has commenced his school, "parents seem to 
feel quite satisfied without further effort, or even inquiry, 
unless it be to know whether their children are severely 
punished. The business of the shop or the farai, claims, as 
usual, the chief attention, and the question whether their 
children arc making all the progress they ought, is very sel- 
dom asked. Little is known of the character of the school 
beyond the report of the children themselves, or from the 
remarks of an occasional visitor.*" 

*Hall's l^ectureR on Sehool-keeping-. 



LECTURES ON EUUCA'flON. 43 

^'Indifference to the character of schools is partly the 
effect of habit. The parent who never visits the school 
which his children attend, will perhaps hardly give as a rea- 
son, that he never saw his father within the walls of a school- 
room, though it is very possible that this may be the chief 
reason. If interrogated on the subject, he will probablj^say 
he lacks time, or does not feel competent to judge of the 
school, or will give other excuses equally indicative of a 
want of interest. The fact, however, may be, that he has, 
from his very youth, formed a habit of considering the school 
a subject of far less consequence than it is. He has imper- 
ceptibly imbibed the sentiments of his own parents, and as they 
appeared but little interested in the character of the schools 
which they maintained, so the habit has come down to him. 
It may also have been induced from others. We are strongly- 
inclined to go with the multitude, whether right or wrong. 
When the greater part of parents are indifferent to the char- 
acter of the school, this feeling is very naturally extended to 
those who at first might have felt some solicitude on the sub- 
ject. Thus habits of indifference have extended from family 
to family — from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from 
district to district. The effect becomes permanent, and year 
after year continues or increases it." 

Want of consideration promotes indifference. A large 
proportion of parents very seldom sit down to reflect on the 
influence which their actions will have on the general happi- 
ness of the country, or the influence to be exerted by them- 
selves on the character, usefulness and enjoyment of their 
children. Few realize as they ought, that their indifference 
to these subjects is a sin against their country's welfare, their 
own, and that of their families. They see not the connection 
between the institutions in which the character of their chil- 
dren is moulded, and the future welfare of their children. — 
There are men, who would consider themselves deeply insul- 
ted, if accused of lacking patriotism — men, who, at the first 
encroachment of a foreign foe, would seize the sword, and 
"shoulder to shoulder," rush impetuously on the assailant — 
men, who would not turn away from the field of battle, whil© 



44 LECTURES ON EDUCATION* 

they had blood to shed or an enemy to face — who still are 
suffering an enemy to make fearful inroads on the happiness 
and safety of the republic ; an enemy more dangerous than a 
Philip, a Caesar, or a Bnonaparto. Inattention to the means 
of extending knowledge through the land, is undermining 
the beautiful pillars of our republican government. But we 
have reason to believe numbers never think of this. Reflec- 
tion is wanting; hence they do not discover the effect which 
their indifference to these subjects may produce on the wel- 
fare of the country. It should be known by all, that the best 
institutions of our country, can be perpetuated no longer, 
than iyxtelligence and virtue continue among the common peo- 
ple. We may as well expect liberty in Turkey, as in these 
United States, when the common people cease to be enlight- 
ened. We may as well expect virtue in a land of robbers, as 
among our citizens, when ignorance is the characteristic of 
the common people." 

If "to seiTd an uneducated child into the world is like turn- 
ing a mad dog into the street,"* all are under obhgation to 
regard, Avith high interest, those institutions which furnish 
the means of mental culture to the great mass of the people. 
That parent, who is indifferent to the intellectual aliment of 
his children, is certainly as guilty as he, w^ho, through an 
unnatural indifference, should permit his offspring to feed on 
poisonous food, or should disregard the calls of nature, and 
make no provisions for them in meat and drink. He disre- 
gards his own happiness as well as that of his children. — 
What comfort can he expect to take in them in age, if he 
neglect to lay the foundation of their usefulness while they 
are under his control. "Parents can rationally expect but 
little from children of riper years, if they have neglected to 
furnish them, when young, with such knowledge as would 
direct them in the path of virtue and filial duty. I see no 
object more revolting, to me, than an undutiful and an 
unkind son. I see no distress more acute than that of a 
parent, whose child is brought into shame and disgrace. — 
Parents, who are indifferent to the character of schools which 

*Parkhur9t'3 Moral Philosophy. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 45 

their children attend, do not reflect how severe the conse- 
quences may be to their own happiness. How pungent have 
been the feeUngs of a father or mother, when attending the 
trial of a son, indicted for some high crime committed against 
the laws of the land, when, after conviction, the wretched 
criminal has upbraided them as the cause of his ruin, by hav- 
ing been negligent of his education." 

Indifference respecting the character and usefulness of 
common schools, is owing, in some cases, to a want of na/wra/ 
affection, and that want of natural affection is, in most instan- 
ces, produced by an all grasping parsimony, or by avarice, 
that master passion in the breast of thousands. If an edu- 
cation cost any thing more than the mere proceeds of the pub- 
lic funds, or the avails of unavoidable taxation — or if the 
child can be at all serviceable in assisting the parent to amass 
wealth, the expansion of that child's intellect is considered 
by the parent as a matter of very immaterial consequence, 
scarcely worth a thought, certainly not worth the sacrifice of 
a few dollars of that darling, soul-absorbing pelf. Thus the 
child, surrounded with the institutions of science and with 
superabundant means of attaining knowledge, is permitted 
to grow up to manhood, with a mind almost as untutored 
as that of the poor Indian, — 

"Whose soul proud science never taught to stray, 
Far as the Solar walk or Milky Way." 

Oh how baleful the influence of that passion for gold, which 
can thus annihilate those warm affections which parents natu- 
rally feel towards their offspring, and which would, if permit- 
ted to produce their legitimate effects, prompt every father 
and mother to give their children that education, which would 
qualify them to take a high standing in society, and to fill sta- 
tions of usefulness and honor! How blighting are its effects, 
when that expansive benevolence, with which true patriotism 
and humanity inspire the bosom of man, is supplanted by that 
chilling selfishness, which cares for nothing around the wide 
globe but the accomplishment of private ends and individual 
gains — which virtually says— f-"of what consequence is it to me 
whether the people be enlightened or ignorant — whether or- 



46 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

der or aneirchy prevail — whether a Congress and a President 
administer the affairs of the nation, according to the will of 
the body politic, or whether a King or an Emperor reign with 
arbitrary sway over a consolidated empire, provided that I 
may but be undisturbed in the accumulation of gain, and fill 
my storehouses Avith plenty and my coffers with gold." Oh the 
petrifying power of Avarice^ that -cvorst passion of the human 
breast! It will turn the soul to adamant.) senseless to the 
warm gush of nature's feelings and sympathies, or exert an 
influence upon itniore baleful than the fabled influence of the 
dogstar's lurid beam, or more pestiferous than the blast of the 
Simoom, in withering the tender charities of the human heart 
— in drying up the fountain of sensibility, and contracting all 
the views and purposes and policies of man within the circum- 
scribed sphere of his own little self! Aye, it is "the root of 
ALL EVIL," and that heart, over whose every passion it exercises 
its despotic control, is as cold, unfeeling and desolate almost, 
as if it were torn forth from the bosom, and hung freezing on 
the stinted pines of Greenland. ^ 

Touch the gold of the miser, and you touch the apple 
of his eye. Ask him to favor with pecuniary aid some 
undertaking of the philanthropist — ask him to benefit his 
country by educating his own family and diffusing know- 
ledge around him, and he will clench his purse-strings as with 
a death-grasp — scowl malignantly upon you, and bid you be- 
gone with your beggarly importunities. Start some enter- 
prise of public utility, which shall, either directly or indi- 
rectly, interfere with his own projects, so as to cast an eclipse 
over his prospects of wealth, or thwart his purposes of gain, 
and you make him forever thereafter your enemy at heart, 
just as effectually, as if, in the garb of a highwayman or an 
Arabian robber, you had waylaid him in the forest or on the 
desert, presented a pistol to his breast and demanded his 
money. 

Let not the philanthropist approach that man, nor the un- 
fortunate come near his fireside or his dwelling, for no cheer- 
ful, hearty socialities are there. Let the poor, weather-beaten 
mariner on the stormy ocean of life keep aloof from him, for 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 47 

he is a frost-bound, iron-bound coast, more inhospitable than 
Nova Zembla, or the everlasting glaciers of cither pole. 

In fulfilling the design of this lecture, I shall show the effect 
which that indifference on the part of parents, which we have 
been contemplating, has caused, in depressing the standard 
of education, and in prudvicing, by its direct or remote instru- 
mentalities, most of the defects in systems of common educa- 
tion. 

For the sake of arrangement and perspicuity I shall state 
the principal topics of the lecture, and afterward make * few 
remarks upon each in its proper order as I pass along. 

The following prominent defects in the character and 
hindrances to the usefulness of common schools will be no- 
ticed. 

1. Teachers are unqualified for their highly responsible pro- 
fession. 

2. There are no co-operative associations among them. 

3. The majority of the community seem not to be inclined 
to show that respect, and give that encouragement and sup- 
port to teachers which they deserve. 

4. Schools, particularly in our large towns and cities, are 
subject to constant mutation. 

5. Edifices for schools are not built according to a proper 
model, nor suited to the accommodation of scholars. 

6. Seminaries are deficient in apparatus suitable to illus- 
trate arts and sciences. 

7. Standard books are in many important particulars, de- 
ficient. 

8. Arrangement, system, and a consequent economy of 
time, take not that conspicuous and all prevalent place in 
the routine of duties and exercises in school they ought to 
take. 

9. The pupil's attention is distracted, oftentimes, and his 
ideas confused, and his proficiency in study obstructed, by 
attempting at the same time, to acquire several different sci- 
ences, which have no sort of aflinity to each other. 

10. Labor is not divided among teachers as it should be, 
invariably. 



48 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

11. Pupils acquire zuords and technicalities, without acqui- 
ring, at the same time, definite ideas. 

I. The majority of teachers are unqualified to discharge comrtien- 
dahly, the duties of their highly responsible prof ession. Not more 
than one half, and, perhaps, it would be in the bounds of 
truth to say, not more than one quarter of those who assume 
the profession of instructor, are even moderately qualified for 
the station. Not as in every department of mechanics — not 
as in every other regular profession, does the candidate for 
the office of instructor, after a systematic course of general 
science, spend three or four years in studies preparatory to 
that particular employment, upon the duties of which he is 
about to enter. "The artizan adopts with eagerness any new 
principle in mechanics; men of the highest attainments and 
skill, in every department of professional life, are alone em- 
ployed and liberally rewarded: and a long course is thought 
necessary in every science. Not so in this science which is 
to lay the foundation of every other. Every stripling, who 
has passed four years within the walls of a college — every 
dissatisfied clerk, who has not ability enough to manage the 
trifling concerns of a retail shop, — every young farmer, who 
obtains in winter a short vacation from the toils of summer, 
— in short, every person, who is conscious of his imbecility in 
other business, esteems himself fully competent to train the 
ignorance and weakness of infancy, into all the virtue, and 
power, and wisdom of maturer years — to form a creature, the 
frailest and feeblest that heaven has made, into the intelli- 
gent and fearless sovereign of the whole animated creation, 
the interpreter and adorer and almost the representative of 
Divinity. 

During a residence of a few months in the city of New 
York, while collecting materials for this publication, several 
instances of the most bare-faced disqualification for the office 
of teacher came under my personal observation, two of which, 
as they are samples of the rest, and as they will forcibly illus- 
trate our subject, arc embodied in this lecture. 

Mr. A. was the son of a poor laborer, who, having no real 
estate or other property, was barely able to support a numc- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 49 

reus family by the fruits of his daily toils, among the farmers 
of one of the mountain towns in Massachusetts. His chil- 
dren, during a few of the first years of their minoi'ity, before 
they were able to assist their parents in procuring a liveli- 
hood, attended an obscure district school in the outskirts of 
the town, just so many weeks or months in the winter, as would 
entitle them to their full share of the public funds. When 
Mr. A., the eldest son, had completed his fourteenth year, and 
had learned to spell most of the words in Webster's spelling 
book— ^to read a sentence without stammering or hesitation — 
to parse a little, and to cypher as far as the Rule of Three, 
he was apprenticed to a carpenter for four years, and never 
afterwards had the opportunity to avail himself of the benefits 
of a school. Having completed his term of apprenticeship, 
and acquired the trade, he labored as journeyman for a time 
in Massachusetts, until he had replenished his wardrobe with 
a good stock of clothing, and his purse with funds to defray 
expenses, when he journeyed to the great city of N. York, to 
seek his fortune. Having labored awhile at his trade, and 
having, by a somewhat pleasing address and winning manners, 
extended considerably his circle of acquaintance, he resolved 
to forsake his laborious occupation, and resort to some more 
easy, and, as he thought, more respectable mode of procuring 
a livelihood and of accumulating wealth. He resolved to 
become a gentleman schoolmaster. He accordingly hired a 
suitable room, fitted it up with a few benches and desks, ad- 
vertised to teach pupils all the branches of a common English 
education, at the usual rates of tuition, without having scarcely 
opened a Grammar, or solved the simplest question in Arith- 
metic, /or ^^/^een 7/ears, and having no knowledge at all of Ge- 
ography, and being utterly unable to instruct his pupils in it, 
except as he asked the questions the geographer had proposed. 
Yet, by a pleasing courteousness of manners, and by enlisting 
thereby the warm sympathies of friends and the good will of 
children, he obtained, without having ever expended Jijl^ 
dollars for the attainment of requisite qualifications, a larger 
school and better remuneration than Mr. C. who taught in 
the next street, and who had expended three thousand dollars 
7 



50 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

during eight years of intense study in preparation for his pro- 
fession. 

The other instance of disquaUfication for the duties of tea- 
cher was exempHfied by Miss D. 

She was a native of New Hampshire, of poor and obscure 
parentage, and obliged, of course, as children of poor parents 
are, to labor most of the years of her minority in procuring a 
«ubsistence for herself and her little brothers and sisters. — 
She had however some few advantages of a literary kind, 
and attended a common district school three months each year 
for five or six years. She afterwards, at the age of eighteen, 
learned the milliner's trade, and at the age of twenty-two 
.went to New York. Being of a delicate constitution, and not 
■meeting with that encouragement in her occupation which 
«he could desire, she opened a room for a school, and by the 
intercessions of friends she soon obtained her complement of 
scholars, and was nearly as well compensated as the accom- 
plished and talented Miss H. who had spent two years in va- 
rious academies, and four years preparatory to her profession 
in a certain celebrated female seminary in the eastern sec- 
tion of Massachusetts. 

These two instances, without citing others, (of which I 
might cite enough to fill a volume,) forcibly illustrate, not 
only the general disqualification of teachers and its causes, 
but the characteristic and palpable indiscrimination of the 
community between fitness and unfitness on the part of in- 
structors of youth. How frequently do- teachers, who have 
expended scarcely a farthing in the attainment of requisite 
qualifications — who can neither pronounce a large propor- 
tion of words correctly, or speak their mother tongue gram- 
matically^ receive from anindiscriminating community a com- 
pensation almost, if not quitc^ as liberal, as the laborious stu- 
dent, who has, during three or four years of intense study, ex- 
pended tcvo or three thousand dollars. The public, in many 
parts of the country, have not, until quite recently, seemed to 
comprehend, that there could be much difference between 
the talents and qualifications of the young man fresh .from the 
plough or the work bench, and one direct with his diploma 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 51 

from the halls of our highest literary institutions^ or between 
the talents and qualifications and accompl ishmcjiis.of ihe young 
lady out of the milliner's shop or from the spinning wheel, 
and the young lady who has spent seyeral years at our most 
celebrated female seminaries, if .we maybe permitted to judge 
from the difference of the value which has been set upon 
their different services. One or two dollars a month, or fif- 
teen or twenty a year, have, generally, been thought to be the 
full worth of that difference. What fact can afford a more 
striking- illustration, and what argument can more fully sub- 
stantiate the truth of the general apathy/ of society on a sub- 
ject, so vitally affecting its welfare? 

How true it is, and, at the same time, how lamentable, that 
many a father, who would not send his watch to be repaired 
by an inexperienced goldsmith, or suffer his child's foot to be 
covered by an awkward slioemaker, should commit the death- 
less mind of that same child to some inexperienced and ty- 
rannical, and often grossly unprincipled "knight of the rod," 
for the development of its intellectual faculties, and for the 
regulation of the §oul, that wonderful, machine, possessing 
dormant energies immensely powerful for good or for ill, and 
containing, unlike the watch, ten thousand delicate springs 
and wheels, all capable of receiving from the direct influen- 
ces of another, a propitious or an adverse motion ! The in- 
jury which has been sustained by individuals and by commu- 
nities, in thus intrusting the culture of the immortal mind to 
persons unqualified in every sense of the word, cannot be es- 
timated, until the triumphant experiments of a wiser system 
shall have proved the greatness of the error, and not the an- 
nals of time only, but those of eternity, shall have disclosed its. 
deleterious influences. 

The era, however, of parental indifference and of public 
apathy, upon a subject which has a bearing so direct and so 
important upon the prosperity of the nation, and the perpe- 
tuity of our republic, is rapidly passing away, and will ap- 
pear on our histor}^, when the highly illuminated generations 
of the future shall read it, as the far off storm-cloud appears 
to the observer, in all its hideous blackness, when it has pass- 



52 LBCTURBS ON BDUCATiON. 

ed over, and the sun has broken forth behind it in his splen- 
dor. 

To prevent misunderstanding and illegitimate inferences, 
it may be necessary for me to disclaim an intention, in my 
remarks, to throw disparagement upon any particular class 
of society, or upon any particular employment — especially to 
throw it upon the laboring classes, or their occupation. — 
No one esteems them more highly or regards them with deeper 
interest than I do. They lay the broad and permanent ba- 
sis of all the wealth, and stability, and strength, and perpe- 
tuity of the republic. Take these away, and the republic, 
like a baseless fabric, falls instantaneously. 

Every honest and useful occupation is honorable — none 
more so than the occupation of a laborer in the different de- 
partments of mechanics and agriculture; and, if a man be 
fitted for the business which he undertakes, and labors in that 
calling industriously, he will, in general, be respected accord- 
ing to his deservings, let his rank in life be what it may. — 
True respectability is not, by any means, conferred by deli- 
cate hands and tapering fingers, that never wrought for their 
own subsistence ; nor by the silver shoe buckle, or the gold but- 
ton, or the superfine coat; but hy merit and by merit alone. 

My intention, however, in remarking about the disqualifi- 
cation of Mr. A. and Miss D. for the responsible station of 
teacher, was to hold iip to view, in a vivid point of light, the 
impropriety of exchanging an employment for which one is 
fitted, for a profession, to discharge the duties of which, he 
possesses scarcely a qualification. Diflidence of ability 
should, at least, forever keep a man within his appropriate 
sphere ; for, when he departs out of that sphere, and would, 
either directly or indirectly , have the public understand, that 
he possesses abilities, which he does not possess, he becomes 
that unenviable personage, whom general consent has agreed 
to denominate a quack or an impostor; and such attempts at 
deception, except in the bare article of school keeping, gene- 
rally are, as they should be, visited with popular odium. 

"But what would be the consequence," some one may ask, 
"if so many unqualified teachers, as are at present engaged 



L£CTUR£6 ON fiOVOATION. 5S 

in the profession, should at once be dismissed from it by the 
public? Could the demand for instructors, especially in 
sparsely populated settlements, and poor districts, be answer- 
ed"? I venture to premise that it might, and shall endeavor, 
in the third and fourth lectures of the series, to explain how 
it might be answered. . 

It may again be objected, that many worthy men would be 
turned out of that employment, by which they procure their 
livelihood. But I cannot discover any plausible reasons for 
such an objection, so long as there are avenues opened thick 
around them, to competence, and even to a superabounding 
plenteousness. There are vacancies in the several depart- 
ments of mechanics and of agriculture enough for all, and 
more than enough, for which vacancies, if they be not so 
perfectly qualified, the effect could not possibly be, in any- 
wise, so deleterious as in the instance of disqualification for 
the profession of teacher, inasmuch as, in the former case, 
mere inanimate, senseless, perishable matter is to be moulded 
and modified, according to the pleasure of the artisan, and, 
in the latter, the deathless intellect is to receive that bias, 
and those impresses, which must tell, either sublimely glori- 
ous, or fearfully dark, on its present and ceaseless destinies. . 

This, then, is the proper conclusion — that each person in 
the community should, extraordinary cases excepted, labor 
in that particular department for which, by the discipline of 
his mental and physical powers, he may have been trained 
and educated. He would not then break the harmony of 
society, by attempting to perform the duties of that station, 
for which he has not the necessary qualifications; but would 
move on in his appropriate sphere, and, by industry and 
economy, gain a comfortable livelihood. This only would be 
the correct and consistent order of things ; and he who should 
wish to invert this order, by undertaking, with a mind unin- 
formed and unexpanded by science, to communicate know- 
ledge and expansion to another mind, would forcibly exem- 
plify, by his practice, the operation of that principle, which 
Pope correctly delineates, when he says — 



54 LECTURES ON EDUCATION, 

"In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies ; 
"All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 
"Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes; 
"Men would be angels, angels would be Gods. 
"Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, 
"Aspiring to be angels, men rebel ; 
"And who hut wishes to invert the laws ' 
"Of Order, sins against the Eternal cause." 

2. There are no co-operative associations among Teachers. 
This affirmation is true, speaking in general terms. Some 
few isolated instances are exceptions. Regarding them in 
their aggregate capacity, there are no town, county, state or 
national societies organized among teachers, as there might, 
and as there should be, in order to accomplish,* by friendly 
communication, the noble intentions of their profession — to 
promote their own individual benefit, the highest moral and 
intellectual elevation of the pupils they instruct, and the 
best internal and external regulation of schools. What class 
of the community are so fitly qualified, by habit and by occu- 
pation, to detect deficiencies in the present modus operandi 
of education, as talented, experienced and observing teach- 
ers; or who so capable as they to suggest proper corrections 
for those deficiencies? Our greatest statesmen may specu- 
late, and our profoundest scholars may write books and broach 
theories upon the subject; yet it is the same, as if a person, 
who was thoroughly versed in all the sciences, except Medi- 
cine and the anatomy of the human frame, should under- 
take to prescribe for the cure of some . dangerous disease. 
In the latter case, no one but the regular-bred and skillful 
physician would be properly qualified to oppose, by his pre- 
scriptions, the progress of the malady, and, in the former, no 
one but the practical instructor would be fully competent 
to accomplish the work of reform in education, for he alone 
would understand fully the necessities for reform. 

It is apparent, upon a moment's consideration, that teach- 
ers might, with vast benefit to themselves and community, 
organize themselves into societies, for the discussion of sub- 
jects "which relate to the development of the faculties — to 



lbctuhes on education. 55 

the government of offenders and punishment for offences — to 
the stimulation of the idle, the assistance of the dull, the 
commendation of the docile, the reward of the industrious, 
and relative, in short, to all matters connected with the best 
discipline of the infant and maturing mind. Such associa- 
tions, however, exist not, except, in a few instances, in mere 
embryo, notwithstanding their propriety and value manifestly 
commend themselves to every reflecting mind- Teachers 
govern their pupils by no common laws, founded upon the 
unalterable fitness of certain causes to produce certain results j 
they introduce no common class books, and establish no 
common prices of tuition. All the duties, in the routine of 
their profession, are performed without that definite and 
systematic method, which is ever necessary to insure success 
in the prosecution of an undertaking, and, it may be remarked, 
that, in the transaction of no business whatever, mechanical, 
agricultural, professional, or political, does there exist so 
much disorganization. The several classes of society, who 
fill up the departments of mechanics, agriculture, and the 
three professions, deposit, in .a greater or lesser degree, 
their individual experience, observation and talent in a. public 
treasure-hou^e for the benefit of the whole. 

Mechanics, in many parts of the country, especially in the 
older and more dense settlements, have associations, which 
convene to discuss subjects relative to their business, as well 
as more general subjects — to determine a proper compensa- 
tion for their labor — to prefix a valuation to their articles of 
merchandize according to quality— to take cognizance of the 
delinquencies of members, who transgress the order of their 
society, and to put such offendeiis away, as unworthy of the 
benefits and privileges of a social compact. 

Agriculturists, though not bound together by the obliga- 
tions of a written instrument, have, nevertheless, among them, 
certain rules, either expressed or implied, by which they are 
governed in their commercial dealings, and regulated in their 
intercourse with each other. 

Physicians, Lawyers, . and Theologians are collected 
together into associations for mutual benefit, and for the pro- 



56 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

tecition of the public against imposition, based upon still 
broader principles, and bound to wholesome order by laws 
still more specific and obligatory, than the principles and 
the laws, upon which either of the two former were based, or 
by which they were governed. In the constitution and 
forms, which embody them into associations, they assume 
the authority, (which they doubtless have a right to assume,) 
to erect tribunals o£ competent judgment, whose decisions 
are determined by experience, talent, and weight of years, 
and, before which, every candidate for a regular and an hon- 
orable introduction to the duties of his profession must undergo 
a strict examination as to his qualifications. If he be found 
to be competent, after trial, he is granted an honorable 
admission into his profession, clothed with the additional 
influence of a diploma, which certifies, that, according to 
the judgment and enlightened decisions of a competent tri- 
bunal, he possesses full ability to discharge the duties of that 
profession. 

But if, after a fair and impartial trial, he be found to be 
incompetent, his application for a diploma is rejected, and, 
if he afterward have the hardihood to persist in intruding 
his services upon community in a capacity, for which he is 
not qualified, he does it not only without testimonials of abil- 
ity, but flies directly in the face of the judgment and decis- 
ion of an enlightened tribunal, and goes to his occupation 
with the brand of incompetency enstamped upon his character. 

Now, although such tribunals may be cried down as "inquis- 
itorial," and such associations denominated "monopolies," by 
men who are conscious, that their natural and acquired abil- 
ities, for the professions and the offices they would assume, 
cannot endure the test of enlightened scrutiny, it must appear 
very manifest, that benefits to avast amount, both individual 
and national, must, either directly or mdirectly, be derived 
from such associations — associations so regulated and so 
cemented. Besides the barriers they oppose to quackery 
and impositions, and the knowledge to be acquired from 
experience thus concentrated, and from the scintillations of 
brilliant thought struck out by the collision of mind with 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 57 

mind in discussion, there must be a solid pleasure in cultiva- 
ting social feelings, by familiar and equal intercourse, and 
in forming friendships with kindred spirits both agreeable 
and permanent, by founding them upon similarity of taste 
and pursuit. 

It is certainly, then, a cause for deep regret, that no such 
associations, for mutual benefit and improvement, and for 
the protection of the public against imposition, exist among 
teachers, especially, since it is vastly more important that 
they should be thus associated, rather than the mechanic, the 
agriculturist, or the professional character, inasmuch as the 
station they fill is of much greater consequence, and the 
responsibilities under which they lie, vastly more solemn, 
interesting and momentous. 

It is to be feared, however, that the high dignity, the 
immense importance, and the almost insuperable difficulties 
to be surmounted in the station of a teacher of youth, do 
not fill up and engross the whole area of his mind — that he 
does not keep constantly before the eye of his intellect the 
fact, that he is training up candidates for immortality — that 
he is enstamping impressions of ideas upon the mind, and of 
feelings upon the heart, which are, not only not to be erased, 
but to deepen and deepen forever! Did these sublime facts 
engross his every thought, he would by no means consider a 
preparation for the duties of his profession an easy labor, or 
a matter of trifling consequence, but, endowed with the best 
possible qualifications, he would, with a proper sense of the 
subject, exclaim — "PTAo is sufficient for these things^''? He 
would realize the necessity, and prize the privilege of hold- 
ing frequent consultation with his fellow teachers, about sub- 
jects of such high importance, as the culture of the deathless 
intellect, and would collect together, into one common store- 
house for common use, all the information of books, and all 
the treasure of experience, relating to his profession. 



8 



LECTURE II. 

PART II. 

SUBJECT ERRORS IN PRESENT SYSTEMS OF COMMON EDUCATION* 

Tlie majority of the community seem not to be inclined to 
show that respect, nor to give that encouragement and sup- 
port to teachers, which they deserve. I am not, however, 
in attempting to establish this proposition, intending to advo- 
cate the cause, and defend the character of teachers indis- 
criminately. Many, I am aware, have been both incompetent 
and undeserving. Many have shown no respect for them- 
selves, and were therefore not respected. Many have been 
unambitious to sustain a high and an honorable standing in 
society, and, as a consequence, have not sustained it. Many 
have scarcely risen to the level of a bare intellectual medi- 
ocrity, and, then, as a reasonable consequence, community 
has, in its estimation and treatment of them, assigned them 
their appropriate sphere. But a serious evil has grown out 
of this incompetency and ill-desert. The representatives of 
the profession have often been so lamentably unqualified for 
their station, that the profession itself has been lowered in 
public estimation. The consequence has been, that a weight, 
like that of the incubus or night-mare, has pressed down the 
energies, and almost paralyzed the exertions of some of pur 
best and most talented teachers. 

In this matter, the public have been altogether in a fault. 
They have been too palpably indifferent, as to the character 
of common schools, and as to the character and qualifications 
of instructors of common schools. Such teachers should have 
been, uniformly, selected, as were fully competent, and in 
whose judgment, skill, and fidelity, parents could have repo- 
sed the most unlimited confidence. Such should have been 
their capability, and such the elevation and purity of their 






LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 59 

moral character, that fathers and mothers might, with perfect 
confidence and propriety, have taught their children to 
regard them as models of excellence, and examples for imita- 
tion; for, such is the teacher's influence over the pliant 
mind of youth, that, if any one person more than another, 
should, (so far as human frailty will permit,) he immaculate, 
HE should be that person. Had teachers been, uniformly, 
as talented, as faithful, and as virtuous, as this representation 
would have them, they would have been placed upon a foot- 
ing of honorable equality with the most favored in society. 
The youth, committed to their charge, would have reveren- 
ced their authority, profited by their example and reproofs, 
and been stimulated to intense study by their commen- 
dations. 

But this, I am well aware, must be mere prospective, ima- 
gining and Utopian theory, until public sentiment and con- 
duct, with regard to this subject, shall have experienced a 
very material change. Should such a change be effected, in 
the progress of human improvement, as the necessities of the 
case demand, it might then be realized, but not till then; for 
the community must forever despair of seeing such a deside- 
ratum accomplished, so long as it shall cling tenaciously to 
iheti 2ja7-simo7iio2is policy, which has so long chilled the ener- 
gies of teachers, and been a night-mare to schools. 

To enlist such teachers with ardor in their profession, as 
would reflect the pictui'e we have drawn of the qualified, they 
must not only have that station assigned them, in the regards, 
of society, which they deserve, but they must be compensa- 
ted. Never will talented men, for any considerable period 
of time, engage in the laborious profession of school teach- 
ing, so long as.masters shall be so 5ca?z^i7«/, and, it would seem, 
in most instances, sooRUDGiNOLYremunerated, as they are at 
present — so long as, in the pursuit of such a calling, the ave- 
nues to zi^ealth, injluoice, and honorable promotion in the ranks 
of society, shall remain closed, and so long as n>en, endowed 
with qualifications, wliich would enable them to shine at the 
bar, or to elicit, by their eloquence, the plaudits of popular 
assemblies and admiring sonntos, shall not he able to obtain a 



00 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

a salary^ equal to a common clerk or salesmcin^in a common store 
or counting home. It cannot be expected — yea, it ought not 
to be expected, by persons, who have a single impulse of 
honorable feeling in their bosoms, that men of genius should 
expend two or three thousand dollars, and eight or ten years 
of their best days, and then forego the almost certain prospect 
of success and aggrandizement, in the three professions, for 
the disrespect, pecuniary dependence and vexation, almost 
invariably attendant upon the occupation of a teacher. So 
long as the \iowev oi rnoiives shall continue to act on the hu- 
man mind, as it now acts, and the constitution of society re- 
main as it is at present, no proposition can be more true than 
this — that the profession of school teaching can never, to any 
extent, or for any length of time, command the services of 
men, suitably qualified, until it shall both be made, and be 
considered to be an honorable and a profitable profes- 
sion: — Until it shall present to the student an highway to 
competence and extended influence, like the of Aei* professions. 
As soon might you expect to see the immutable laws of physi- 
cal nature reversed, as this order. As soon might you expect 
to see the rivers flow backward towards the mountains, or 
the foliage and blossoms of May vegetate on the snow-banks 
and perfume the frosty atmosphere of December. 

True, there are phenomena in animal and physical, and 
may be in mental nature. Howard was a mental and a moral 
phenomenon, — an exception to a general rule. He spent a 
life and a fortune, in groping through the glooms and damps 
of prisons and dungeons, to administer to the wretched out- 
casts of society, Avhen he might have regaled himself in a 
palace. Other Howards might submit to wear out their brief 
existence, in performing the health-destroying labors of the 
teacher, and content themselves to receive their bare pit- 
tance of food and clothing, and a spot large enough to lay 
their bodies in, when the breath had left them, for the good 
that might live after them. These would be exceptions to 
general rules — such exceptions as cannot often be looked for, 
and such as society ought never to look for or countenance; 
for, in «o doing, it throws trmptations in the way of men of 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 61 

ardent and noble dispositions to become self-devoted martyrs, 
in order to supply its lamentable deficiencies in duty. 

4. Schools^ particularli/ in our large ionms and cities, are sub- 
ject to co7istant mutation. This is the legitimate and unavoida- 
ble consequence of the inaptitude of present modes of educa- 
tion, to accomplish the speciticobjcct, they propose to accom- 
plish — that is, the acquisition of the greatest possible amount of 
knozvleclge zvithin a given period. The parent, who is at all 
concerned about the intellectual expansion and scientific 
proficiency of his child, is generally deeply concerned. He 
would have it acquire the greatest possible amount of know- 
ledge within a given time, and at a given expense. With this 
intention, he introduces his child, at a suitable age, into some 
seminary, and commits him to the care and tuition of the in- 
structor in that seminary, fully expecting to have the satis- 
faction of seeing the dormant faculties of the child rapidly 
unfolding themselves, under the skillful cultivation of a 
qualified artizan, and to behold "the ignorance and weak- 
ness of infancy, trained to all the virtue, and power, and 
wisdom of manhood."" Of these wishes and of these fond 
anticipations of the parent, the teacher is fully aware, when 
he assumes the vast and crushing responsibilities of the un- 
dertaking. He lays himself out accordingly, and brings to 
the work allhisresourcesof energy, faithfulness, expei'ience, 
and abilities; and truly he needs them all, and vastly more 
than all, I fear, in order to accomplish the task, which the 
fond wishes of the parent would assign him. Nevertheless, 
he proceeds to the work. He devotes to the instruction of 
this child, all the time and attention, he possibly can, consis- 
tent with his other multiform cares and imperative duties. 
With unwearied patience and diligence, he, day after day, 
trains the infant faculties, and cultivates the tender thought, 
and pours instruction, like melting dews upon the mind. — 
Yet, amid the vast multiplicity of duties and exercises, which 
elicit the utmost stretch of his skill and energies, to perform 
in their appropriate season, and amid the unavoidable dis- 
tractions, consequent upon that multiplicity, he cannot devote 
that attention to the expansion of the child's intellect, and to 



G2 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

its proficiency in science, that he would devote, were he not 
bound by hoary headed Error, to this course, with cords of 
irresistible necessity: — And when he has passed through the 
routine of the day, and his work is done, he sits down with an 
aching head, a sick heart, and energies and spirits prostrated 
in the dust, thinking of the automaton operations of the school 
— the parrot-like acquisitions of his scholars — the lamentable 
w^ant of explanation in the sciences — the total impossibility 
of giving such explanation — and his own inefficiency to per- 
form that Herculean task, which public expectation has as- 
signed to him. 

In process of time, the parent becomes dissatisfied, because 
the child has not, in a few short months or years of discip- 
line, become that young Hercules in science, or that intel- 
lectual paragon, which the fond fancies of the parent sup- 
posed he zcmihJ become. The pupil is removed, as a matter 
of course, from a seminary, wherein the parent imagines his 
child's genius must have been fettered, and his pinions so 
enfeebled by want of proper exercise, as to have prevented 
his soaring to those sublime heights of science, whereon his 
wishes would gladly have placed him. To the care and in- 
struction of another teacher the child is, then, committed, 
with particular charge that no pains be spared to discipline 
his mind, and train his faculties to exercise. No pains cox 
spared. As in the former case, the teacher puts in requisi- 
tion all his skill, judgment, and fidelity, but, as in the former 
case, the same disappointment is the result. Thus the pa- 
rent continues to change the child from school to school, and 
stOl continues to experience heart-rending disappointment at 
every change, until the pupil, after having gone through the 
routine of all the seminaries, graduates, at the age of six- 
teen, eighteen, or twenty, with a limited knowledge of the 
most simple and common branches of an English eduction. 

Now it is evident that there is utterly a fault somezvhere! 
Where is it? Is it chargeable upon the teachei', or upon the 
parent? Not upon the leachrr, in this supposable case, I affirm 
— for he did what he could. How could fabled Atlas, strong 
as he was, have run a race in the Olympic games with 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 63 

the world hanging upon his shoulders? How could a man 
effect thcit, which it must, in the essential, constituent nature 
of things, be morally impossible for him to effect? And how, 
then, I ask, can a teacher be reasonably blamed, for not ful- 
filli"hg the measure of the fond parent's expectations, when it 
would be morally impossible for him, upon the present foun- 
dation of the school system, to fulfill it, should he discharge, 
in a manner equally faithful, his other multifarious duties? 
Is the fault chargeable, then, upon the parent? Certainly 
not. His disposition to find fault and change results from a 
principle both amiable and excellent in its legitimate opera- 
tions — from parental affection and solicitude, seeking to pro- 
mote the highest good of its object, though seeking to promote 
it by means ill-adapted to the attainment of the desired end. 
Prompted both by ambition and affection, he is willing to 
"rise up early, to sit up late , and to eat the bread of careful- 
ness," that he may have the means wherewith to defray the 
expenses of a liberal course of education, because he has 
learned, both from analogy and from observation, that "know- 
ledge is power," and almost the sole stepping stone, as it 
were, to an elevated standing in society. If, then, the mind 
of the child does not expand and grow up to that stature of 
intellectual greatness, which fills and engrosses the whole 
prospective vision of the parent, in one seminary, and under 
the culture of one teacher, another must be tried— and ano- 
ther — and another, in hopes that the experiment shall at last 
prove successful. 

Now, does not such a parent, from over-anxiety, err in 
judgment and defeat his own good intentions? I think he 
does. Palpably erroneous and defective, although the pre- 
sent system of school teaching confessedly is, would it not be 
wiser to make a selection, fi-om among seminaries, of one sus- 
taining, comparatively, a good reputation, both for ability 
and government; and, having made the selection, would it 
not be preferable there to enter the scholar at the commence- 
ment of his rudiments, and there to keep him, until the com- 
pletion of his studies, for this very plain reason, — the tea- 
cher becomes acquainted with the child, and the child with 



64 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the teacher? If there be mutual attachment existing be- 
tween them, as there generally will be, the instructor can 
easily excite emulation in the bosom of the pupil, if its prin- 
ciple exist there. He can avail himself of all the advantage 
resulting from a knowledge of the pupil's peculiar disposition, 
taste and mental bias, and can, therefore, it will readily be 
perceived, adopt a mode of treatment more proper than an- 
other, though equally skillful, if destitute of such knowledge. 

5. Edifices are not built according to a proper models nor 
suited to the accommodation of scholars. As in the selec- 
tion of a teacher, so also in the choice of an apartment, or 
in the erection of an edifice for a school, reference is had 
mainly to cheapness. Upon this subject, as well as others 
connected with it, there seems to be a lamentable want of 
consideration. No matter if pupils be crowded together 
into the dense, unhealthy atmosphere of a basement room, 
half buried under ground, as may, too frequently, be wit- 
nessed beneath churches in the cities of Boston, Philadel- 
phia, Cincinnati, New York and other places, which apart- 
ments were never thoroughly ventilated by the pure, untain- 
ted breezes of the West. 

The majority of edifices, erected for school-houses, are, 
generally speaking, constructed with small apartments and 
low ceilings. Into these small apartments with low ceilings, 
as large a number of scholars are admitted, as will fill up 
their whole area, leaving only a vacancy sufficiently large 
for the teacher's desk. 

Now, those conversant vsdth philosophical and chimical 
subjects, will understand, that the whole mass of the atmos- 
pheric fluid, contained in that room, must soon pass through 
the process of decomposition in the lungs, by being inhaled 
— the oxygen of which fluid is incorporated with the blood, 
and the nitrogen of which is exhaled again into the apart- 
ment, which gas, in its pure, unmixed state, chimists have 
ascertained to be a most deadly agent in the extinction of 
animal life. By this process of decomposition in the lungs, 
the healthful equilibrium of the vital fluid is destroyed, (unless 
it can be sustained by a constant and plentiful supply of 



mCTUUES ON BDUCATIOIf. , 66 

IVesh air by ventilation) — the exhaled nitrogen of the atmos- 
phere overbalances the oxygen that remains in the apart- 
ment, which preponderance must go on to increase, until it 
is vacated. The effect, produced by the respiration of this 
vitiated fluid, v^dll be evidently manifest in the heavy breath-^ 
ing, the languid looks, and depressed spirits of both pupil and 
teacher. The mental perceptions of the one will be dull, 
and his proficiency in study extremely slow, while the other 
will, by exerting his lungs to make the necessary explana- 
tions in the sciences, inevitably wear them out, and speedily 
destroy them. It is evident, then, that apartments should be 
as high, commodious, and airy as possible, especially in the 
impure atmosphere of cities, in order that the mind of the 
pupil may be char and his physical powers possess their full 
quantum of healthful energies and elasticities, since such is 
the sympathy between the animal and the intellectual 
natures, that mental activity depends, mainly, upon a well 
strung nerve, and a sparkling flow of animal spirits. 

Besides the apartments for study and for recitation, there 
should be other apartments appropriated for other purposes. 
In every well regulated institution of learning, there should 
be a museum, a library, and an observatory. But of these 
we will remark more at large in another view of our general 
subject. 

6. Seminaries are deficient in apparatus, suitable to illustrate 
arts and sciences. It has, I am aware, been generally thought 
to be non-essential, that apparatus should be attached to 
schools, as a necessary appendage; at least it would seem so, 
for there are many high schools and incorporated academies, 
which have no other attached to them, than a set of globes 
and maps, and there are some, indeed, which have not even 
these. But he, who has enlarged and consistent views upon 
this subject, must know, that no student can, for instance, 
obtain a perfect knowledge of Natural Philosophy and Chim- 
istry, without a philosophical and chimical apparatus to illus 
trate the almost magical powers of some of nature's wonder- 
working agents. What student would realize the surprising 
properties of the atmosphere, that surrounds the earth, unlew 



66* LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

he saw them tested hy experiments with the air and common 
pump? In these experiments, he sees a vivid illustration of 
the truth of the old adage, that "nature ahhors a vacuum." 
What student would readily believe, although it might be 
most positively affirmed, in the text book of the science he 
studied, that it could be possible, that one of the component 
parts of that same atmosphere — the oxygen, when separated 
from the other component part, the nitrogen — should cause 
iron and steel to burn with a fiercer blaze, and with a far 
intenser corruscation of light, than the most combustible 
Vegetable or animal substance of the same bulk, unless he 
should be compelled to believe, by the irresistible demonstra- 
tion of his own senses, in witnessing the oxygen collected 
into ajar or bottle, by a chimical process, and the iron or 
steel actually inserted and burned there? — Or what stu- 
dent would realize, that the nitrogen of the same fluid would 
instantly extinguish flame, or destroy life, unless he saw the 
lighted candle suddenly put out by it, or the animal breath- 
ing it, instantly show symptoms of dying convulsions? 

Vast benefits must, then, accrue to the student, by witness- 
ing experiments made with apparatus, since he seems to be 
suddenly introduced by them into one immense laboratory — 
the Universe — filled with agents, almost magical — where 
Nature, the great Chimist, is daily, hourly and momently 
decomposing old substances, by resolving them into their 
original elements, and out of those original elements compo- 
sing new substances, with properties entirely different, resul- 
ting from different combinations — crumbling the decaying 
rock to sand, petrifjdng fishes into flint-stone, and transform- 
ing a drop of water, by crystalization, into the solid diamond. 
We infer, then, the immense and incalculable utility of 
apparatus, in illustrating Arts and Sciences, — in expanding 
the mind — and in stamping the impressions of ideas more 
deeply and indelibly upon the memory: — And every school, 
which has not now so much as a map or globe, ought to have, 
and MIGHT hove, did the public but fully apprehend their 
necessity and utility, not only maps and globes, but diagrams, 
geometrical, mathematical and nautical instruments, a com- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 67 

plete philosophical and cliimical laboratory, a museum of 
natural and artificial curiosities, a botanic garden, and other 
necessary appendages. 

7. Standard books are^ in many important respects^ defective — 
books for the reading classes in particular. Gencially speak- 
ing, they are above the comprehension of the classes for 
whom they are intended: — And here is the reason. Men of 
great abilities and high literary attainments undertake the 
task of compiling them; but, not having been practical in- 
structors of youth themselves, they know not how to adapt 
their ideas and expressions to the capacities of those who 
read or learn. They talk and write, or make selections for 
philosophers, and philosophers may be edified, but not children^ 
for to them such productions are a mere unmeaning, "dead 
letter." Murray's reader, for Instance, though an excellent 
compilation, simply in itself considered, is composed chiefly 
of argumentative and didactic selections, from the pens of some 
of the most eminent scholars; and on that account they arc 
not better understood, I venture to afiirm, by the great ma- 
jority i^of pupils, from the age of seven to twelve or fifteen, 
than Virgil or Homer's Iliad, and, indeed, cannoi be; — for, 
propositions are assumed and conclusions drawn from premi- 
ses by a process of nice and often metaphysical deduction, 
about whose philosophical principles and logical rules, the 
pupil knows absolutely nothing, and comprehends as little. 
He will stand up, and read page after page, without those pe- 
culiar intonations of voice or expressions of countenance, 
which indicate the production of new trains of thought in 
the mind, or fresh impulses of feeling in the heart. But, 
place in that same pupil's hands a book of sprightly anec- 
dotes or interesting stories, written in a style, natural, simple 
and easy, and you will see his eye sparkle and flash, a smile 
play around his moutli, his whole countenance lighted up 
with intelligence and meaning, and his voice assume that 
deep, mellow, and varied intonation, which indicates thought 
and feeling. And why? Simply because the subjects discuss- 
ed are within the grasp of his comprehension. It is a prin- 
ciple, which lies at the very foundation of the science of 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 



school teaching, and which experienced teachers themselves 
do not seem lully to apprehend — that, in communicating 
knowledge to a child, you must clothe jour ideas in the very 
simplest garb of nature — must talk the language Avhich the 
child uses; for only, by so doing, can you speak to his com- 
prehension, and convey to his mind a glowing image of the 
idea you would wish to convey. 

8. Arrangement^ system^ and a consequent economy of time^ 
take not that conspicuous and all prevalent place, in the routine of 
duties and exercises, they ought to take. "Order is Heaven's first 
law," and so should it be the first law of the school; and, in 
every movement of both teacher and pupil, its operations 
should be distinctly perceptible. Look abroad. Scan the 
pursuits of man. Is aught of worth or moment accomplish- 
ed without systematic proceeding? Do enterprises succeed 
— are men of business prospered without it? Without it, is 
there any thing beautiful, or elegant, or splendid, produced 
by the artizan? What constitutes the beauty of an edifice, 
but system, or symmetry in its architectural proportions? — 
What causes your watch to tell you with such exactness the - 
time of day, but system in the arrangement of its springs and 
wheels? What makes trade flourish, and fill the coffers of the 
merchant, but system in the books of the counting house and 
in financial operations? What produces the variety and 
regularity of the seasons — what the agreeable alternation of 
day and night, of seed time and harvest, of spring and sum- 
mer, autumn and winter, but system — admirable — PERFECT 
SYSTEM? Yet, though it be so important — so absolutely 
necessary to success, in the prosecution of human affairs and 
human enterprises, it is not introduced into our schools to any 
extent, and, indeed, I doubt whether it can be introduced' 
there, until they shall have been entirely remodeled. In 
most instances, the selection of books, the couree of studies, 
and the quantum of labor, are determined by the wishes of the 
parent, the caprice of the child, or the position — "I will" 
or "I won't'* of a petted darling, instead of the judgment and 
law of h qualified and experienced teacher. Thus are tal- 
ented and faithful Instructors recfiiired to forego their natural 



liECTURBS ON EDUCATION. G9 

independence and decision of character, and to become the 
very "servant of servants" to the pubHc, and that too, for a 
most pahry pittance. Looking at these facts, I wonder not 
that the efforts of so many are paralyzed — their purses empty 
— their spirits depressed, and their existence most miserably 
dragged onAvard towards the grave; for I speak from 
EXPERIENCE, when I affirm, that, of all the employments 
in society, none is more miserably slavish, than that of school- 
teaching upon the present plan — not even excepting ditch- 
ing — hoot-blacking — ov chimney-sweeping. So far as the mere 
drudgery and slavishness are to be taken into account in the 
comparison, 1 had actually as lief be "chained to the oar of 
a galley," as to be chained, for life, to this most ungracious 
occupation. 

9. The pwpiVs attention is distracted, oftentimes, and his ideas 
confused, and his proficiency in study obstructed, by attempting, 
at the same time, to acquire several different sciences, rohich have 
no sort of affinity to each other. This evil, although a gross 
and an almost universal one, is perhaps the least apprehen- 
ded of any in the whole "modus operandi" of education. In 
addition to Orthography, Reading, and Penmanship, the 
scholar frequently studies Grammar, Geography, or Arith- 
metic during the exercises of a single week or da3% This 
course, I am aware, is defended by some intelligent men; 
but I must confess, I see not upon what principle of reason or 
common sense; for the evident tendency of such a multipli- 
city of sciences must be, to distract attention, and produce 
confusion in the pupil's ideas. 

Let a man, for illustration, endeavor within the short com- 
pass of ten or twelve hours, to recollect a vast variety of dis- 
similar particulars, about a variety of dissimilar objects, and 
see what a painful effort it costs him — how it fatigues his 
memory, and how very soon the impression is erased from 
his mind, because there is no perceptible chain of resem- 
blance or affinity, by which those dissimilar sciences are con- 
nected: and because there is no perceptible chain, a person's 
knowledge thus acquired cannot, therefore, be so readily at 



70 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

his command ; for it is not coupled together in the mind, 
but exists there in a state of anarchy. 

Besides, the student acquires not half the actual informa- 
tion he mighty were his attention confined solely to one branch 
of science until its completion. The truth and appositeness 
of this proposition will appear plain and forcible by illustra- 
tion. A farmer, for instance, goes into his field to labor. He 
works one hour at one kind of employment — leaves it unfin- 
ished, and proceeds to another kind — works an hour at that — 
leaves it unfinished, and proceeds again to a third; and so 
on, varying his employment every hour during the day. Now 
can the affairs of such a farmer prosper? The common 
sense of all men answers in the negative. That farmer will 
not have effected half so much, in the course of the year, as 
he would, were he more systematic in his operations, and 
did he pursue steadily one object, until he had overtaken it. 
By parity of reasoning, we may infer the same of the student. 
His progress must be slow and scarcely perceptible, when 
his attention is divided by a variety of sciences. His spirits, 
as an inevitable consequence, lose their tone of animation — 
his books become burdensome — and not one-half, and, per- 
haps, not one-quarter of the actual knowledge is acquired, as 
when the attention is confined solely to one branch; for then 
his proficiency is rapid.) and daily apparent, both to himself 
and others. By success and by commendation, he is stimu- 
lated to increased exertion, and his feelings glow with rap- 
ture, as intelligence dawns upon his mind and the intellec- 
tual prospect expands into infinity before him. 

10. Labor is not divided among teachers as it should be IN- 
VARIABLY. This proposition will be unanswerably de- 
monstrated to any candid man,, if he but take an isolated 
school, for illustration, and closely follow the teacher through- 
out the routine of a day's exercises. 

Suppose, for instance, that an instructor has all the quali- 
fications requisite for the commendable discharge of his du- 
ties — suppose that he is a first rate scholar, a thorough dis- 
ciplinarian, and expert in the communication of knowledge 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 71 

— jet, what, I ask, can he do, as schools are at present con- 
ducted. 

Let us, for the sake of illustration, take an inventory of the 
several items of labor to be performed, and the routine of 
exercises through which the teacher must pass in the short 
compass of three hours. Suppose that he has a school of forty 
or fifty scholars, of all ages, from four to sixteen, eighteen or 
twenty, and of all capacities, from the Abecedarian to the Lin- 
guist and the Mathematician. Those forty scholars must be 
divided, for the exercises of reading and spelling, at least into 
five classes, according to their different attainments and ca- 
pacities. These five classes must, according to the law of 
custom, be called upon to read and spell twice in rotation 
within the three hours allotted for a forenoon or afternoon 
exercise. Let us now, for the sake of making a full demon- 
stration of the utter inefficiency of the present system of 
school teaching, estimate the quantum of time which can be 
allotted to each exercise. There are five classes, and each 
class must, in conformity to custom, read and spell twice in 
half a day. To each of those exercises, let ten minutes be 
apportioned, which is the very extent of what could be allow- 
ed, and upon such an average, an hour and forty minutes 
would be spent by those five classes, allowing only ten mi- 
nutes for each exercise. 

Besides the five classes, there would probably be ten out 
of the forty, who would study Arithmetic, ten more who would 
study Grammar, and ten more still, perhaps, who would stu- 
dy Geography. In addition to those ten, engaged in the 
study of each of the above branches, there would probably 
be twenty out of the forty, who would learn to write. 

Now let us review this brief calculation, and see if it be 
possible for a teacher to accomplish much, in the short period 
of three hours, burdened, as he necessarily must be, with 
such a multiphcity of duties and cares, though he should 
even possess the talents and gifts of an angel. According to 
our computation, ten minutes were allotted to each class, 
for each exercise in reading and spelling. Now, supposing 
that each class is composed of eight individuals, and each in- 



73 LECTURES ON BDUOATION. 

dividual in the class reads but a few short sentences at an ex- 
ercise, in addition to spelling, with the rest, a column of 
words in a dictionary or spelling hook, what proportion of 
the ten minutes, I would ask, can the teacher devote to cor- 
rect the faults of that class, and to instruct them, as they 
ought to be instructed, in correct punctuation, emphasis, tones, 
cadences, and all the nice particulars, which must be attend- 
ed to, in order to constitute a good reader? Why, none at 
all. There is only time sufficient to hurry through the lesson 
in a confused manner, Avithout pretending to correct faults, 
or to read deliberately or understandingly. Thus, the hour 
and forty minutes is spent in doing that which, for the want 
of sufficient time and attention, might, in most instances, have 
almost as well been left entirely undone. 

Now, after the hour and forty minutes has been subtracted 
from the three hours, there will remain an hour and twenty 
minutes only, to be spent in hearing all the recitations of 
forty scholars, and divided between ten Geogi-aphers, ten 
Grammarians, ten Arithmeticians, twenty Writers, and a 
number of duties not mentioned. Looking at this multipli- 
city of duties and exercises and cares, I would ask, in the 
name of common sense, what time can a teacher have, in an 
hour and twenty minutes, to hear all the recitations of forty 
scholars — to make all the necessary explanations in Arith- 
metic, Grammar, and Geography — prepare the books and 
pens for twenty writers and oversee their writing, besides the 
additional labor and intense vigilance required to govern 
forty scholars, of as many different dispositions and habits — 
to answer ten thousand various questions, and to keep all 
things relating to the management of the school in their pro- 
per order? Why, the task would be more than Herculean, 
and no man living could perform it as it ought to be perform- 
ed. Such an effi^rt would be absolutely beyond, not only the 
bounds of probability, but beyond the range of possibilities. 

And did the community, generally, thus sit down and cal- 
culate with mathematical exactness, the whole burden of a 
teacher's labors, and the distraction of his ten thousand cares, 
they would come to the same conclusion, that we have drawn 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 73 

from the facts we have considered — that present systems of 
education are radically and most imlpably erroneous^ and that 
great proficiency in science cannot possibly he the legitimate 
result of our method of school teaching. 

11. As an inevitable consequence, resulting from the %oant of 
a division of Labor among Teachers, mere words and technic- 
alities are acquired by the pupils, instead of definite ideas. 
None but those who have exannincd scholars critically, can 
have an idea, to what extent tlieir knowledge is what may 
be termed mere mechanical knowledge. The great majority 
of students, and, sometimes even college-bred students, are 
only intellectual parrots. They, indeed, acquire the theory 
of the sciences, and can readily give thejr definitions and 
technicalities; but it is on the very same principle that the 
parrot learns to talk — not understandingly, from a full percep- 
tion of the philosophical principles and bases of science, but 
mechanically, from mere imitation of books and men, 

This subject will be illustrated and our assertions demon- 
strated to be true, if you examine, critically, a student, for 
instance, who maintains a high and reputable standing among 
the literati, for intelligence and scholarship. Question him 
closely, respecting the principles and elements of those sci- 
ences he has studied, and it is "ten chances to one," if he do 
not uniformly betray ignorance. He will, not unfrequcntly, 
be nonplussed and put to silence and confusion by the plain- 
est and most simple queries about those principles and ele- 
ments. And what does this fact prove? Why — that his 
knowledge of those sciences consists more in terms and tech- 
nical phraseology than in distinct ideas — recited mechanically 
instead of under standingly. Memory is exercised, while the 
other faculties of the mind undergo but a partial discipline, 
and remain, in a great measure, dormant. The student 
learns not to think, and reason, and infer, and mature his 
judgment, and strengthen, by use, the powers of his under- 
standing; nor does he cultivate or give scope to an unfetter- 
ed or fearless spirit of inquiry, or examine into the philoso- 
phy and elements of science, or trace effects back to their re- 
mote and hidden causes, or explore the inherent nature and 
10 



74 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

essence of things; but he thinks so and so, for no other or bet- 
ter reason, than because such and such great men have hap- 
pened to think so and so, before him. Now, this servile imi- 
tation cramps and fetters genius; effectually prevents decis- 
ion of character, independence of thought and manly and 
noble action ; and enchains a man, like the captive at the 
oar of a galley, forever to the sentiments and ways of his fore- 
fathers. 

Students are, and must, necessarily, reasoning from the na- 
ture of things, forever be, in a greater or lesser degree, those 
intellectual parrots we have been describing, so long as they 
shall be educated in schools, where labor is not divided among 
teachers — where one man is required, and expected to per- 
form duties so multiform and arduous, that five or ten men 
might be fully and intensely occupied, in discharging the 
same duties, in the same time — where all is necessarily hurry 
and confusion — and where there is no time, and can be none, 
for explaining and simplifying the sciences to the compre- 
hension of scholars. 



^SUPPLEMENT 

TO 

LECTURE II. 

SUBJECT ERRORS IN PRESENT SYSTEMS OF COMMON EDUCATION. 

In addition to those defects in the character, and hindran- 
ces to the usefulness of common schools, which have already 
been enumerated, in the second lecture, there are two other 
topics or propositions, similar in their nature and effects, to, 
those discussed, which, as they were omitted in their appro- 
priate order, demand, in this place, a passing remark. 

1. Sectarian prejudice and exclusiveness oppose a formid- 
able barrier to improvements in present systems of educa- 
tion, preventing that union of design and of effort, which is 
necessary, in order to effect such improvements: and 

2. The character and tendency of High or Select schools, 
established for the sole, exclusive accommodation of the sons 
and daughters of wealthy men, is anti-repuhlican and aristo- 
cratic. 

1. Sectarian prejudice and exclusiveness oppose a formidable 
barrier to improvements in present systems of edticaiion, by pre- 
venting that union of design and of effort^ which is necessary, 
in order to effect such improvements — a barrier more formida- 
ble, perhaps, than any other in our country, and one, from 

* Since the second lecture was prepared for the press, certain cir- 
cumstances have transpired, affecting the author personally, which 
circumstances suggested the first of the two propositions or afiirnMi- 
tions above mentioned, as well as the consequent train of thought, 
argument, and inference; and, as they could not be conveniently em- 
bodied in the preceding lecture, they are inserted, therefore, aaa sup- 
plevient to that lecture. 



76 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

which the most stubborn and unreasonable resistance is to 
be apprehended. 

Go where you will, the fact is sufficiently apparent, that 
there is, in this country, a great diversity of religious opin- 
ion, and that the community of professors are broken up into 
a great many different sects or denominations. There is the 
Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, the Methodist, the "Baptist, 
the Congregationalist, the Universalist, the Unitarian, the 
Quaker, &c. &c. &c. Each of these sects or denominations 
are biased, in their conduct, by peculiar prejudices, and have 
their own particular designs to accomplish. Although I 
would wish to rank with professors of Christianity, yet, I do 
not believe that the faults and foibles of those professors 
should be screened from merited rebuke; and, as I am no 
stickler for infallibility in religious matters, I am free to 
confess, that, in the midst of all their virtues, those sects or 
denominations have each^ their failings too, as well as other 
men. Is "charity to all mankind," their motto? Too often 
— far too often, does "all mankind" mean, in their diction- 
ary, only their own particular brotherhood ,, if we take their 
conduct to be the coiTect interpreter and expositor of their 
meaning. Do they, for instance, equally divide the com- 
munity, where they dwell, into two or three great parties? 
Each party looks with a jealous eye upon the other's rising 
interests; as is often, too obviously manifested, both in their 
conduct, and in their conversation. 

Suppose, for instance, that those three religious denomina- 
tions, equal in numbers, are a Presbyterian, a Methodist, and 
a Baptist. If an Instructor of youth, belonging to the 
Presbyterian denomination, shall open a school, under the 
particular patronage of that denomination, and with their 
hearty approval of his qualifications, will he be as well pa- 
tronized, and as heartily approved by the Methodist and the 
Baptist denominations? Or if he be a Methodist, will he 
be as well patronized, and as heartily approved by the Pres- 
byterian and the Baptist? — or, if a Baptist, by the Methodist 
and Presbyterian ? A multitude of familiar facts answer these 
questions in the ncgntive. Instead of that concord and har- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 77 

monious union, which should ever prevail among the differ- 
ent classes in community, while endeavoring to accomplish 
the sublime ends of education, there must, if the village be 
sufficiently wealthy and populous, be three distinct schools — - 
a Presbyterian, a Methodist, and a Baptist, each under a 
control, almost exclusively sectarian. 

If one of those denominations shall gain ascendency as to 
numbers, wealth, and influence, it would seem, from the autho- 
rity which that denomination often assumes, that it considers 
itself possessed of an inherent right to lord it over neighbor- 
hood affairs, and monopolize control. Now, let a man of gen- 
ius and talent, belonging to a denomination in the minority, 
as to numbers, wealth, and influence, attempt to establish a 
school in that city, village or town, and, if he have the 
hardihood to disown the assumed authority and control of 
those would-be monopolists, it is ten chances to one, unless 
that man possess uncommon perseverance and decision of 
character, if his efforts be not paralyzed, as by the night- 
mare, or the touch of the torpedo — his good name destroyed 
by blasting insinuations and innuendoes, and he be robbed, 
thereby, of an honest livelihood, and of an honest fame. 
These suppositions are no figment of the imagination. They 
are realities. I can cite instances, in point, to prove that 
they are realities. Let one, however, suffice for illustration. 

Some time in the spring of eighteen hundred and thirty- 
one, a young man of my acquaintance, opened an Academy 
in a certain village in the state of Ohio, with th^ intention, 
if possible, of establishing a school, upon an improved plan, 
and of testing, by experiment, the benefits of that plan. He 
commenced with seven scholars, but by intense application, 
day and night, to the duties of his school, leaving himself 
barely time sufficient to take his necessary food and rest, he 
increased, in six months, from seven, to one hundred and sixti/ 
or seventy scholars, which number he divided into a Male, 
a Female, and an Infant or Primary Department; in which 
departments, besides being himself constantly engaged, he 
employed four or five assistants. 



78 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

When this young man proposed to establish an Infant, or 
Primary Department, many, who were decidedly in favor of 
the system, and who ardently desired to see it put in opera- 
tion in their village, prophesied, nevertheless, that it could 
not be accomplished, such was the strong tide of infidel sen- 
timent, running in opposition to that system. The] young 
man, however, conceiving that it would be an improvement, 
and nothing daunted by those prophecies, appropriated and 
fitted up an apartment, in his Academy, for that purpose; 
procured the necessary apparatus, at his own expense, and 
employed an Infant School Teacher. He was successful, and 
that Department soon numbered y?/i?/ or sixl/y scholnrs. But 
that very success had nearly proved his ruin. Envy and 
jealousy roused up their snaky crests, and from eyes of fire 
shot forth at him glances full of withering effect. He was 
popular, it is true — very popular as a teacher, awf^ he deserved 
to be so; but whose popularity will not wither and droop be- 
fore the blighting influence of blind innuendoes, and sly in- 
sinuations? 

The fate of that young man will be told, in one sentence, 
when it is said, that he did not belong to the numerous and 
influential denomination of that village, and that he wholly 
disowned their right to interfere or intermeddle in any way, 
with the regulations of his own institution. By the most art- 
ful maneuvers, by insinuating that it would injure the morals 
of their little infants, to come so near in contact with the 
larger scholars, although they knew, at the same time, that 
tlie Institution was perfectly regulated from the key stone to 
the foundation — and telling this most pitiful and woful story 
to the old women and the deacons, a hue and cry was raised 
against the connection of the Infant department with the 
Academy. A meeting was, at length, appointed by the prin- 
cipal men of that influential denomination, to attend which 
the young man was invited. Then and there they disclosed 
their intention to disconnect the Infant Department from 
his Academy, appropriate for it a separate room or edifice, 
and place it under the supervision of a board of tnist, chosen 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 79 

from their own number. To accomplish this design, they 
solicited the young man's co-operation, and the use of his ap- 
paratus. To this unmanly proposition the young man, of 
course, objected, as implying a gross insult to himself. He 
frankly and candidly stated, that his solemn and deliberate 
conviction was, that the grand impelling motive of that un- 
manly proposition, must have been, sectarian prejudice, ari- 
sing from the fact, that he belonged to another denomination 
— that their allcdgcd reason could not have been their real 
reason; and'cxpressed his determination to withstand, to the 
utmost of his effort, their hypocritical maneuvers. They ex- 
pressed a determination, equally strong, to compel him to ac- 
cede to their proposition, and he as positively affirmed, that, 
if they persisted in urging its disconnection, he should call 
a meeting of the citizens, and appeal from their unrighteous 
decisions, to the decisions of the public. This hint, together 
with a proposition, on the part of the young man, to remove 
their allcdgcd objection, by building a separate building, and 
fitting it up, at his own expense, rather, than that they should 
intermeddle with his affairs, they desisted from the execution 
of their purpose, and adjourned sine dic» The young man 
proceeded, to build, according to promise, and erected an 
edifice, thirty-six feet by twenty-four, every way suited for 
an Infant Department. But, after having, for the purpose 
of satisfying the unreasonable demands of sectarianism, in- 
curred an expense of about five hundred dollars, without re- 
ceiving the donation of a farthing, those same men, gradually, 
withdrew their patronage from that school, although, taught 
by the very persons they themselves recommended, and at 
length, cried down the infant sjstem, as altogether errone- 
ous— /or xiihat reason, let the candid reader judge. 

I have cited this instance, and might cite a multitude of 
similar instances to prove our proposition — that "Sectarian 
prejudice and exclusiveness 6ppose a formidable barrier to 
improvement in present systems of education, by preventing 
that union of design and of effort, which is necessary in or- 
der to effect such improvements!" And NEVER, it may be 
confidently affirmed — NEVER can schools be improved, 



80 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

materially, until all religious parties shall be annihilated, so 
far as their influence on education is concerned, and all be 
willing, while endeavoring to develop the faculties and cul- 
tivate the minds of the rising generation, to meet together 
upon neutral ground, and act in a consulting and in an asso- 
ciated capacity. 

2. The character and tendency of High or Select schools, es- 
tablished for the exclusive accommodation of the sons and daugh- 
ters of the zvealthy, is, evidently, anti-republican and aristo- 
cratic, and ought not, in a land, the very constitution of 
whose government is based upon the principle, that all men 
are bornyree and equal, to be tolerated — no, not for an hour. 
I conceive them to be, not only grossly unjust, but a direct 
insult to the great mass of the community. What is the plain 
and literal meaning of the language which they speak? 
Does it not virtually deny, that all men are born "free and 
equal"? Does it not virtually say, that there should be 
grades and castes in society — that the blood, that runs in 
the veins of the poor plebeian, is meaner than that, which 
flows in the veins of the moneyed aristocrat, and that nature 
has designed that the working classes should take their place 
at the footstool of the lazy lordlings, who are supported by 
the sweat of their brows? Is it denied, that these inferen- 
ces flow, logically, from our premises or proposition? We 
invite investigation. Examine every step of our deductions, 
from those premises, and, if honesty does not impel you to 
subscribe to the correctness of those conclusions, then we 
wholly mistake the grand principles of logical deduction, 
and the affinity which exists between cause and effect. If 
I have not extremely erroneous views, upon this subject, 
the man who advocates the establishment and liberal endow- 
ments of High or Select schools, without making an indis- 
criminate provision for the whole mass of pupils, as expan- 
sive and noble-soulcd patriotism would prompt, does, in 
effect, say — "My children, together with those of my weal- 
thy acquaintances, are, no doubt, proper subjects for the 
reception of popular favors. Institutions should be founded 
?ind liberally endowed for their exclusive benefit — institutions* 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION". 81 

from which the children of the common and laboring classes 
of the community should be excluded; — for, if they should 
be admitted into the same institution, and to the enjoyment 
of the same literary privileges, with ours, they would, per- 
haps, have the impudence to assume a station of equality 
with them. Some of our children being companionable, 
and not having the discretion of their parents, to apprehend 
the necessity of maintaining a respectable and dignified 
superiority, might form friendships and intimacies with the 
offspring of the vulgar, which might have a tendency to 
lower the standard of their dignity and lessen their self- 
respect. Thus a serious evil would grow out of an indis- 
criminate admission into our institutions, of the poor and 
the rich, upon a footing of equality. The proper distinc- 
tions in society, would, thereby, be, in a measure, annihi- 
lated, and the dignity of patrician families would be brought 
down to a level with the grovelling meanness of the 
plebeian." 

This language is not mere supposition. Often have I 
heard it in substance, drop from the lips of those, who would 
have been extremely mortified to have seen it committed to 
writing, for their edification, as in the above literal version 
of their meaning. But, men, who will hold such sentiments 
and language, with regard to their individual importance, 
and the importance of their families, on the scale of soci- 
ety, ought to become the subjects of sarcasm, and have the 
whole artillery of the press leveled at their foibles. 

How supremely ridiculous it seems, when we behold a 
human being, strutting and vaporing, and assuming airs of 
amazing consequence, and looking down upon those around 
him, in the common walks of life, from an ENORMOUS 
height, as if he were surveying, from the top of Parnassus, 
a herd of dwarfs and pigmies in the vale below. And, all 
this, because he happens, by some fortuitous circumstances 
of birth, or fortune, or knavery, to ride in a little better car- 
riage, or wear a somewhat finer coat, or possess more shi- 
ning dust in his coffers, than his poor neighbor, who, setting 
aside all adventitious appendages, is created of dust equally 
U 



8:2 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

as good, possesses a far nobler soul, and is, in every respect, 
a better man. 

Away, then, with those absurd gradations and classifica- 
tions in society, which are constituted bj wealth, rather than 
by merit, when merit should alone constitute the grand basis 
of all the distinctions in society, which are ever permitted 
to exist! Away, I say, with those gradations and classifi- 
cations! They are aristocratic. They are ANTI-RE- 
PUBLICAN. Their natural tendency is to foster monar- 
chical sentiments, and to create a monarchical form of govern- 
ment, as truly, as it is the natural tendency of water to flow 
downward towards the ocean, or of all bodies to gravitate 
towards a common center. Should such gradations and 
classifications prevail to any extent, we should soon be inun- 
dated with a flood of Lords spiritual, and Lords temporal. 
Yes, our calendar would soon exhibit a long catalogue of 
Lords, and Earls, and Dukes, and Bishops, and Arch-Bish- 
ops, and Princes, and Kings, and Emperors. We should 
have Lord Adams; Lord Clay; Wirt, Duke of Baltimore; 
Southard, Duke of Trenton ; Webster, Earl of Boston ; Liv- 
ingston, Earl of New Orleans; Lord Bishop Mcllvaine; 
Arch-Bishop Onderdonk; McLean, Prince of Ohio; Van 
Buren, King of New York; and Hayne, his most Subli'me 
Majesty, the Emperor of all the Carolinas. 

If such, then, be the natural tendency of those grada- 
dations and classifications of society, they certainly ought 
not to he tolerated. Aye, they WILL NOT, much longer, 
be tolerated. The time is coming, when the common peo- 
ple will no longer tamely submit to be so grossly insulted, 
as they are, when they are virtually told, by the wealthy, 
that the offspring of the plebeian cannot be admitted to 
an equality in society, with the offspring of the patrician 
— that they must occupy different spheres — be educated 
in different institutions — enjoy different advantages — and 
fill different offices; the one menial, and the other honora- 
ble. No — they will not submit to be so grossly insulted; 
but will say to the rich and the titled, "Recollect that you 
are in the minority. And what if you do possess zvealth? If 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 83 

you are, in consequence of that wealth, insolent towards us, 
be it known, that we possess the strength and sinew of the 
land, and can and WILL chastise you, for that insolence, as 
you deserve. If your offspring are too good — too noble — 
too elevated, to associate upon terms of intimacy and equal- 
ity, with our children, lest, forsooth, they should be contam- 
inated by the customs and manners of the vulgar, they are 
too good — too noble — too elevated, to live in the same country^ 
or to breathe the same atmosphere. Remove them to countries, 
where they can breathe the atmosphere of royalty, if royal 
they must be. It is proper that they should no longer live in 
a land, where the inhabitants are born to equality of rights, 
and privileges, and immunities — where the genius of the 
government neither acknowledges, nor tolerates, a lordling 
superiority. Remove them: Else we shall be under the 
necessity of showing you, how utterly powerless your fan- 
cied consequence is, to protect you from the effects of a just 
resentment, on the part of an insulted community. For 
your upstart insolence, we may send you, like proud Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 'seven years to pasture,' or banish you to the 
deserts, until you can learn the lesson, that you are but flesh 
and blood as well as other men." 

Well persuaded, am I, that sentiments like these, will, 
ere long, prevail, and will be spoken out, with thunder- 
tongued accent. The absurd distinctions, which are now 
created, by the adventitious circumstances of birth or for- 
tune, will be annihilated, and the sons and daughters of the 
poor will come together, into our schools, upon a footing of 
friendship and equality, without thinking that ruffles, or 
ribins, or silks, or superfine coats, constitute elevation and 
nobleness of character. 



LECTURE III. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACHERS. 

Having endeavored, in a former lecture of this series, to 
make a full expose of the prominent errors in present sys- 
tems of common Education, it will now be expected, that 
we should propose and elucidate some theory, by the prac- 
tical operation of which, those errors shall be effectually cor- 
rected — the basis of education be laid broadly, permanently, 
and immovably — and schools be elevated to that dignified 
and lofty eminence, upon which, should ever be planted 
the nurseries of young immortals. Such a theory, we think, 
we have at hand — one every way calculated, in its full prac- 
tical operation, to accomplish the desired object. 

It will be recollected, that among the catalogue of errors, 
upon which we remarked in a former lecture, were included 
the want of a Division of Labor among Teachers, and the acqui- 
sition of rvords merely/ by the pupils, withoxd the acquisition of 
definite ideas; the latter resulting naturally from the former, 
as a tree springs from the root, or an effect flows from a 
cause. 

That error, we shall now venture to assume, and endeavor 
to demonstrate, is the efficient agent in producing all the other 
defects, which depress the standard of common schools, and 
paralyze the efforts of those, who would elevate it: — And we 
shall also assume the consequent proposition, that the inver- 
sion of that grand error — A Division of Labor among Teachers — 
is the only infallible corrector of those defects. And if, in the 
process of our reasonings, and deductions, and inferences, we 
shall succeed, in fully demonstrating and establishing the lat- 
ter proposition, we shall, by the same process, demonstrate 
and establish the former. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 85 

We are well aware, that it seems, from all analogy, to be, 
as it were, a constitutional law of our nature, that the human 
mind should rise up instinctively, and sometimes with great 
spirit, in opposition to novel theories, and innovations upon 
long established customs and practices, and, at the first alarm 
of invasion, take up arms in defence of those customs and 
practices, though they may have grown hoary in error. We 
are not about to combat or to wage war with that disposi- 
tion, the actings out of which may be seen, by a reference 
to all analogy, however much it may have , and undoubtedly 
has^ retarded the progress of the human race in science and 
in improvement. We only assert, that, in advocating the 
principle of a Divhinn of Tjobor^ we neither broach a novel 
theory, nor do we make innovations upon established usa- 
ges. As it would happen, this principle has long been held 
in universal estimation, which, happily for us and our cause, 
supersedes the necessity of plucking, with sacrilegious hands, 
"the wizzard beard of hoary error." Its immense value has 
been extensively tested, and as extensively acknowledged, 
in all those mechanical and manufacturing establishments, 
both in our own and in other countries, which have been suc- 
cessfully and profitably operated, and which have produced 
specimens of rare and elegant workmanship. And, it may 
be remarked, that just in proportion to the extent and uni- 
versality of the application of this principle, to the operation 
of those mechanical and manufacturing establisliments, has 
been their success — the beauty, elegance, and variety of 
their products — the immense revenue resulting to the owner 
from their operation — and the extreme cheapness of the ar- 
ticles produced. 

For the sake of seeing our proposition forcibly illustrated 
and proven, visit the famous manufactories of Manchester and 
Leeds, in England, or those of less note, at Paterson, Wal- 
tham, Northampton, and other places, in our own country. 
Look, as you pass along through Britain, into the workshops 
of Birmingham and Sheffield, or even into the pin manufacto- 
ries of London., and you will see, that the grand principle of 
a Division of Labor is there in full operation. You will find, 



86 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

by examination, that it is the great secret mainspring, as it 
were, which puts all their vast machinery in motion, and 
innumerable wheels rolling, with such untiring and fruitful 
activity. It is the operation of that principle, which turns 
off into the market so rapidly, and at such a small expense, 
so vast an abundance, and so rich a variety of manufactures — 
and loads the vessels of the exporter and the shelves of the 
merchant, with woolens and linens, muslins and calicoes, 
lawns and laces, both useful and fanciful, of every descrip- 
tion, hue and texture, and so very cheap, withal, oftentimes, 
considering the quality and niceness of their workmanship, 
that one would almost be tempted to suppose, that they were 
brought into existence by fabled magic, like the mushroom 
castles and palaces of ancient story, or by the unexpensive 
power of a miracle, rather than by the regular operation of 
human strength and invention. He would suppose this, did 
he not understand, that the grand secret of their cheapness, 
durability, fineness, and beauty, was owing to the Division of 
Labor among Workmen. Here in this great, but simple and 
common-sense principle, consists, alone, the magic or the mi- 
raculous power, that whirls the vast machinery of those manu- 
facturing establishments — which makes their revenue so pro- 
fitable to the producer, and their articles of merchandize so 
cheap to the consumer, and without the operation of which, 
they would stop immediately, and stop forever, unless the 
owners were willing to sacrifice thousands of dollars yearly 
to keep them in operation. 

If you desire ocular demonstration of the incalculable ben- 
efits derivable from the principle of a division of labor, go, 
if you please, into the woolen factories of Leeds, and the cot- 
ton factories of Manchester, which have, for years, perhaps 
ages, sent out their productions throughout the four quarters 
of the globe — to Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the 
islands of the seas, and brought back again, into the bosom 
of the empire, revenues of wealth, importance, and aggran- 
dizement, in a deep and steady current. Witness the pro- 
cess of their operation, and take notice of the several distinct 
departments of business, in which, workmen of divers occu- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 87 

pations are engaged, the individual results of whose labor 
are all united in one ultimate result, — in the formation and 
completion of a piece of cloth. In one department, for in- 
stance, you will find, that it is the exclusive employment of 
one class of workmen to assort and cleanse from dust the 
raw material, and hand it over to the workmen of another 
distinct department, whose sole business it is, again, to card 
and prepare the wool or the cotton for the spindle. In pur- 
suing your examination of the process, you will find, that it 
is the exclusive occupation, again, of a third class of work- 
men, to regulate the maclnneij of the spinning department, 
and produce the thread, which, after being spooled, is trans- 
ferred to the weaver, and thence, after he has prepared and 
passed it through the loom, it is handed over in form of cloth 
to the bleacher, if it be cotton, or to the scouring and fulling 
department, if it be woolen; when it is scoured and fulled 
by one class of workmen — dyed by another — sheared and 
napped by another — and pressed and folded for the mar- 
ket by another. Th^o.., +'^eether with some other minor 
branches not mentioned, constitute the str^^oi distinct de- 
partments of labor performed in the cotton and woolen mana-^ 
factories of Leeds and Manchester, in England, and in simi- 
lar establishments at Waltham, Paterson, Northampton, and 
other places in the United States; the various results of the 
labor performed in which departments, are all combined to- 
gether, as we have seen, in order to produce a single article 
of manufacture. 

This principle obtains, indeed, in a greater or lesser de- 
gree, in all those manufacturing institutions throughout the 
globe, which are extensively and profitably operated, from 
the iron and steel workshops of Sheffield and Birmingham, 
even down to the pin manufactories of London. In those 
factories, it is the sole employment of one class of workmen to 
cut the wire for the pin — of another to form and sharpen 
the point — of another to prepare the head — of another to 
fasten it — and of another still to insert the article in papers 
when completed. 



88 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Here we see that the principle we are advocating, is 
deemed, hy mechanics and manufacturers, so essential to 
the successful operation of their business, that, in the pro- 
duction of so simple an article as that of a pin, no less than 
five or six workmen of different occupations are engaged. 

Universal suffrage, is, in fact, in favor of it, applied as it 
is at present; and the benefits derived from it, in promoting 
the accumulation of individual gain, and in advancing the 
mercantile interests of a country, are considered, by tbf^ 
enterprising and the intelligent of all nniions, as invaluable. 
Its operation effectually prevents hurry, confusion, and incom- 
petency. Eacli workman has his own particular station 
assigned him, and his own particular branch of business 
allotted. That station he daily occupies; and in the per- 
formance of the business of that branch, he is engaged from 
the days of his apprenticeship, to the decrepitude of age. 
Such a workman, so occupied from youth to gray hairs, in 
the accomplishment of one individual object, must, if he 
possess but common ingenuHy oi->J u, moaerate share of ambi- 
tion to eyroJ, be a thorough master of his art. 

"vJustom," says the proverb, "is a second nature:" and 
its truth cannot be more forcibly demonstrated, than by the 
fact, that, when a workman or a mechanist of any kind, 
has been long habituated to perform the duties of one 
individual occupation, and to bend all his mental and mus- 
cular energies solely to the accomplishment of one individ- 
ual design, he dispatches business with an ease and alacrity 
truly wonderful. No strength or effort of muscle or mind 
are idly or unprofitably wasted. Every blow — every motion, 
accomplishes precisely the object it was intended to accom- 
plish; and those blows and motions become, by force of long 
habit, as easy and as natural, as the motions of the same 
pei'son in walking. 

"Practice makes perfect," is a proverb equally as true as 
that "Custom is a second nature." Not only can the mecha- 
nist, by the force of habit, dispatch business with surprising 
ease and alacrity; but/he can also, by practice, become 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 89 

thoroughly perfect in his art, and produce specimens of 
workmanship, surpassing, in elegance, beauty, and fineness 
of texture, any article of manufacture, which could possibly 
be produced, were his attention divided by a variety of occu- 
pations, though all should be, at the same time, tending to 
one ultimate result. 

It will probably be recollected, by those who take an 
interest in the rising institutions of our country, and who are 
familiar with the histories of their commencement and their 
progress, that, some years ago, in order to produce domestic 
cloths equal to those imported, and to turn the eyes of Amer- 
icans to their own true interests, individual and national; 
workmen were procured from those venerable establish- 
ments of the old world, which had, for centuries, been 
successfully and profitably operated; not because their 
natural talents were superior to those of our Avorkmen, but 
because, having been bred up, from youth to age, in perfor- 
ming the duties of one individual occupation, practice had 
made them perfect in that occupation. They were, there- 
fore, justly considered to be the only persons suitable to 
superintend the operations of our infant manufactories, so 
that their produce might rival the produce of those across 
the water, and merit the encouragement of our people; and 
that workmen of our own, equal in genius, and in capability 
to excel, might be educated under their direction, and thus 
qualified, in process of time, to fill their stations with native 
talent, equal, if not superior, to their own. 

Now, these facts, so far from being irrelevant to the sub- 
ject of the present lecture, or mistimed, as some may ima- 
gine, seem, to me, to elucidate, very appropriately, the truth 
of the maxim, that '•'•Union is strength f and demonstrate 
that a community of workmen, or a community of scholars, 
or any other community whatever, acting together in an 
associated capacity, upon a given plan, with the intent to 
accomplish a given purpose, can eifect vastly" more, and do 
it vastly better, than the same number of individuals com- 
posing that community, can effect upon the same plan, and 
for the accomplishment of the same object, acting, never- 
13 



90 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

theless, in their isolated and individual capacity. We draw, 
therefore, the reasonable inference, that "L7/izo/i" among 
Teachers ^Hs strength'''' — that a division of labor, to accomplish 
the purposes of education, is equally as beneficial, as a divis- 
ion to accomplish manufacturing purposes, and even more 
henejicidl; and that instructors of youth, by associated arfd 
combined effort and action, under propitious circumstances, 
as to numbers, means and accommodations, can effect vastly 
more in disciplining the mental faculties, developing the en- 
ergies of the intellect, and teaching "the young idea how to 
shoot," than thcy could possibly effect by isolated effort and 
action — by effort and action, combined and associated upon 
the same principle as among workmen, in manufacturing 
and mechanical establishments, instead of isolated effort 
and action, as may be witnessed among teachers, in schools 
conducted upon the present plan. 

The question then arises — "How can the community avail 
themselves of this union of effort and action, in order to pro- 
mote, most effectually, the important objects of education? 
How can 'A division of Labor among Teachers' be effected?" 
The object of the present lecture, is to answer this question, 
and to show — 

1. How it can he effected in large cities and densely popu- 
iated villages: and — 

2. How it can be effected in sparsely populated country- 
towns. 

1. We shall endeavor to show how a Division of La- 
bor among Teachers can be effected in large cities, and 
densely populated villages. This distinction between a 
sparse and dense population, in the discussion of our sub- 
ject, is made for the reason that there are many more diffi- 
culties to be encountered and overcome in effecting proposed 
improvements in schools located amid the one, than in schools 
located amid the other; and they should, therefore, be con- 
sidered separately. In cities and villages, for instance, con- 
taining from four to six, eight and ten thousand inhabitants, 
in which those four, six, eight or ten. thousand reside com- 
pactly, within the compass of eighty- or one hundred rods, a 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 91 

large number of scholars can be collected together, centrally, 
with little or no inconvenience to parents, or children, on 
account of distance: — And this large number of students, so 
collected centrally, is precisely what is required in order that 
the practical bearing and benefits of our theory, may be fully 
tested by experiment. The greater the number of children,, 
so collected, the more fully and effectually can the "Division 
of Labor among Teachers" be accomplished. There should 
be congregated, at the least calculation, six hundred chil- 
dren, in every properly regulated, and correctly classified 
Seminary; and, if there could, without material inconveni- 
ence, on account of distance or other impediments, be one 
thousand or fifteen bundled, or even two or three thousand, 
as in some of the schools at Meaco, in Japan, it would be 
better still; and the important objects of education would 
be more fully, and more successfully accomplished. This 
will, we trust, appear abundantly evident, as we proceed 
with our illustrations of the subject. 

1. The first thing, then, which, in the natural order of the 
discussion demands at.tention, is — a suitable provision for the 
accommodation of that mass of children. The ground'must be 
chosen and properly arranged, and the edifices must be plan- 
ned and erected for this purpose. But in attempting to select 
and lay out those grounds, and to design a model for suita- 
ble edifices, the author is fully aware that he may not in all 
respects — nay, perhaps, not in any respect — succeed in pei'- 
suading community to coincide with his views in these par- 
ticulars, or obtain their approbation. He is aware that the 
phases of human taste are almost endlessly diversified — more 
diversified, and more irregular, by far, than the phases of the 
moon — subject to the influence of caprice, and whim, and fan- 
tasy, to a very considerable extent. This divei-sity is occasion- 
ed by a variety of causes. Early habit, education, the customs 
and manners of the particular society in which one lives, dif- 
ferent degrees of intellectual cultivation and refinement, all 
bias taste,-and determine its approbation or its disapproba- 
tion of any given subject of reflection, or of contemplation. 
Men, living in different nnlion^, or in different ages of the 



93 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

world, biased by different manners and customs and degrees 
of intelligence, are frequently very antipodes in matters of 
mere taste. While one, for instance, admires white teeth^ 
another is equally partial to black: — While one covets regu- 
lar features, and a fair, unblemished complexion, another con- 
siders a visage hideously deformed by painted imagery, like 
the Indian warrior of the North American forest, the very 
pink of perfection and beauty — the more hideous the more 
perfect and beautiful, in his estimation. Multitudes of other 
instances might be mentioned, where human taste assumes, 
as in those instances, a thousand Protean shapes, according 
to the endless variety of circumstances, as to manners, cus- 
toms and education, under which men are found. The per- 
son, then, who should attempt, or expect to commend to uni- 
versal approbation, any particular design or performance of 
his own, by any effort of illustration, argument, and appeal, 
must be lamentably deficient in his knowledge of human na- 
ture, and must, whether he anticipate it or not, experience 
the disappointment and mortification of the poor painter, 
who, in undertaking to please every hody^ succeeded in plea- 
sing nobody. 

Notwithstanding this diversity of taste, however, there are 
certain principles of common sense, which are, like axioms 
or self evident propositions, acknowledged universally, so 
soon as proposed by men of every age, in every nation and 
under the diverse influences of every varied circumstance of 
education and habit. Reasoning or acting upon these prin- 
ciples, you are sure to obtain universal assent and approba- 
tion, though novelties in theory and practice maybe advocat- 
ed by your logic, and though your conduct may be a wide de- 
parture from the beaten track of generations; unless, .for- 
sooth, sectarian prejudice, or some other prejudice equally 
strong and equally hostile to wholesome innovations upon 
established customs and usages, shall blind men to the force 
of your logic, and the propriety of your conduct, and thus 
influence them to disown those principles of comrnon sense. 

The author of this series of lectures, intends, in suggesting 
plans, and designs, and improvements, to follow, as closely 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 93 

as possible, so far as he understands them, the dictates of 
those common' sense principles; but if, in the execution of 
his assumed task, he shall see cause to depart, in a measure, 
from those rigid principles, and to sketch plans, and designs, 
and improvements, from the suggestions of his own mere taste, 
he shall dismiss from his thoughts the anxiety of the poor 
painter, to please every body^ endeavoring only to satisfy 
himself fully as to their usefulness and their feasibility, and 
having thus satisfied himself, he shall endeavor to content 
himself to abide the results. 

Having premised these things, by way of eliciting a candid 
and unprejudiced attention to our suggestions, we return from 
our digression, and proceed to select or point out a suitable 
location for the proposed institution of learning. 

A spot of ground should be chosen as near the center of the 
population to be accommodated as the nature of the soil, or as 
convenience will admit. An elevated position, and sandy soil, 
would alwaj^s be preferable, on many accounts, to a low and 
clayey soil ; but if such a location could not be found at the cen- 
ter, there should be a spot, selected somewhat removed from 
that center, if there were a suitable one near at hand; provid- 
ed, however, that the harmony of the society should not there- 
by be disturbed or endangered, and the hearty co-operation of 
all be prevented. 

That spot of ground should be sufliciently spacious for two 
commodious main edifices; the one for the Boarding, and the 
other for the Academic department; besides, sufficient space 
for necessary workshops, out-houses, a botanical garden, 
upon an extensive scale, and a gymnasium or play grounds. 

But, before we proceed further, let it be premised, that, 
in giving the dimensions andfproportions of those edifices, 
and in planning their divisions into the necessary apartments, 
if the author should not, in all respects, manifest an acquain- 
tance with the technical phraseology of architecture, it will 
be expected, that mechanics, who do understand that phra- 
seology, will readily grant him absolution for any ignorance 
or misapplication of terms, of which he may happen to be 
guilty, as he professes to be no practical artisan, but designs 



94 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

only a rude sketch of the model he has in mind, as the most 
appropriate, and expects that professed artisans will improve 
that sketch into architectural symmetry, retaining, neverthe- 
less, its principal outlines. 

The two main edifices intended for the Boarding and the 
Academic departments, should occupy a conspicuous position 
in front of the other buildings, but removed, nevertheless, suf- 
ficiently from the public street for an enclosed court yard, in 
the interval, three or four rods deep, which, when comple- 
ted, should be ornamented with various trees and shrubbery. 

The Academic edifice should be constructed with walls 
of brick or stone, four feet thick, or more, atthe foundation. 
Its dimensions on the ground should be eighty-eight feet long, 
by forty-six wide, and should be carried up three stories from 
the basement, the two first of which stories, should be fifteen 
feet between the floors and ceiling, and the third eighteen 
feet to the eaves. The two first stories should be appropria- 
ted' for school rooms; and the model proposes that they should 
be fifteen feet between the floor and ceiling, for the reason, 
that the ceilings of school rooms should be lofty, the essential 
necessity of which, every teacher understands, in order that 
those rooms may be the' more freely and thoroughly ventilated 
w^ith fresh air, and in order, also, that the atmospheric fluid, 
rendered impure and vitiated by breathing, may ascend, ac- 
cording to its natural tendency, above the heads of the pu- 
pils, and so pass off by ventilators, leaving the lungs and 
health of the pupils uninjured by inhaling again and again, 
the exhaled nitrogen of the atmosphere. 

Through the center of those two stories, from the front to^ 
the rear of the edifice, should pass a hall, eight feet wide, divi- 
ding them into two equal parts; which hall should be inter- 
sected by another six feet wide, running lengthwise, from 
end to end of the edifice, dividing the two stories into four 
quarters each, in dimensions of forty feet by twenty. Those 
eight quarters of the two stories, should all, excepting two, 
be again subdivided into two apartments each, in dimen- 
sions twenty feet by twenty, making in all fourteen rooms, 
including the two undivided quarters. Those two undivided 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 95 

quarters, each twenty feet by forty, should be appropriated 
on the right hand of the main hall, on the first floor; the^one 
for an infant or primary department, entitled number first; 
and the other for a museum, entitled number second. The 
remaining twelve apartments should be numbered and appro- 
priated in their regular order, beginning at the left hand, in 
front, and numbering to the rear, and the same order should 
be observed upon the second floor, until the whole are num- 
bered and appropriated to their particular uses. 

According to the natural gradation of intellectual develop- 
ment and literary advancement, from the first germs of infant 
thought and reason, upward, to the full grown, and fully 
expanded faculties of the graduate, number third should be" 
appropriated to the Spelling and Reading department — 
number fourth to the Geographical and Historical depart- 
ment — fifth, to the Writing, Mapping, Painting, and Design- 
ing department — sixth, to the Grammatical and Rhetorical 
department — seventh, to the Philosophical, Astronomical, 
and Chimical department — eighth, to the Mineralogical, Ge- 
ological, and Botanical department — ninth, to the Arithmeti- 
cal depai-tment, including common Arithnietic, Geometry, 
Trigonometry, Surveying, and Book Keeping — tenth, to the 
Mathematical department, including Algebra, Conic Sec- 
tions, Fluxions, Navigation, and Euclid's Elements — eleventh 
and twelfth, to the Classical department; the one for the 
Ancient or Dead Languages; the other for the Modern or 
Living — thirteenth, to the Metaphysical department, inclu- 
ding Ethics, Metaphysics, Logic, and the Philosophy of the 
Mind — and fourteenth, to the Library. In this appropria- 
tion we have omitted a musical department, for which, how- 
ever, a saloon will be appropriated, in another edifice, for 
the reason that if it should be appropriated in the Academic 
edifice, its exercises might disturb the exercises of the other 
departments. 

The third story of the Academic edifice, being eighteen 
feet high, should be appropriated, and fitted up for a decla- 
matory department and public lecture-room ; occupying the 
whole area of the building, excepting twelve (eet at one 



96 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

end, for a stairway, and a vestibule or antechamber, into 
which, two flights of stairs should ascend from the end of 
the narrow hall which intersects the second story length- 
wise. This declamatory department and public lecture- 
room, forty-six feet by seventy-six, should be arched over- 
head, and be occupied with seats, or slips as they are some- 
times called, separated by the interval of two aisles, leading 
from the two entrances of the vestibule or antechamber, 
through so much of the hall as can be appropriated for an 
audience, after making the reservation of twelve feet at the 
end opposite to the antechamber, for a rostrum or stage. 
This rostrum should be elevated above the level of the floor 
three or four feet, at the front of which, a curtain of green 
baize or bombazette should depend from the ceiling of the 
arch, so attached to pulleys, that it may be raised or dropped, 
at pleasure — an appendage often necessary, while students 
are learning the art of public declamation. Near the front 
of this rostrum, may be construc1;,ed a moveable desk, or 
pulpit, suitable for the accommodation of a lecturer; which 
desk may be placed or displaced, as circumstances may " 
require. 

From the vestibule or antechamber, a flight of stairs should 
be constructed, leading to the garret loft, from the head of 
which, a passage should be prepared, and a floor laid to the 
center of the edifice beneath the ridge of the roof. The 
center of the arch and roof should be supported by a pillar 
at least eighteen inches in diameter, planted upon the floor 
of the large hall beneath; which pillar should be inserted 
through the roof, and ascend above it, like a mast, fifty or 
sixty [eet, for the centi-al supporter of a dome or tower. The 
timber and flooring, beneath the foot of this pillar, should be 
supported by solid pillars in the several halls below, from 
the foundation upwards. Attached to the pillar, ascending 
above the edifice, and supported by it, together with the 
roof, should be constructed a dome or I'ound tower, twenty 
feet in diameter at the base, -and fifty or sixty feet high, 
somewhat in the form of one half of an oblate spheroid. The 
lower part should be appropriated for a belfry, from which 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 97 

should ascend a flight of circukir steps, constructed around 
the pillar in continuation for forty feet above the roof. 
There the flight of steps should terminate in an entrance 
through a floor into the upper apartment of the dome, which 
apartment should be about ten feet in diameter at the base, 
terminating fifteen or twenty feet above ^at the center. 
The lower part of the walls of this apartment, six or eight 
feet from the base, should be constructed with frames and 
glass windows like the dome of a light house. This apart- 
ment so constructed should be appropriated and fitted with 
telescopes and perspective glasses for an Observatory, where 
a person may not only bring beneath his eye the variegated 
scenery of the surroimding country, but make nocturnal ob- 
servations of the planets, and bring them down, as it were, 
from the cerulean depths of immensity where they lie buri- 
ed, within the ken of human vision, and the reach of human 
calculation and measurement. 

Each of those thirteen departments which we have already 
numbered and appropriated, from the Infant to the Metaphy- 
sical department, should be arranged in a different style, and 
after a different model from the others, each in its own pe- 
culiar manner, according to the uses for which it is intended, 

1. * Department number first, being a spacious I'oom 
twenty feet by forty, should be arranged as to fixtures and 
apparatus with a view particularly to the accommodation of 
children, in the commencement of their rudiments. In pre- 
paring this department for their reception, no pains nor rea- 

*It is not my intention in the present Lecture to say any thing 
about the peculiar method of communicating instruction, which this 
system proposes, or the propriety of the order of studies which is here 
observed; butshall give a description merely of the fixtures and appa- 
ratus appropriate to the different departments. It is reserved for Lec- 
tures fifth and sixth of the series to delineate, at full length, the method 
which should be adopted by the Professors of the several sciences in 
communicating knowledge to their pupils. And the attempt will then 
be made to demonstrate that the order of studies which has here been 
appointed to be observed is strictly according to the natural order of 
mental development, and is therefore founded upon correct philosophi- 
cal principles. 
13 



98 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

sonable expense should be spared in making it as attractive 
as possible, as it is the entrance to the walks of science and 
the vestibule of knowledge. Those walks should be flowery, 
and that vestibule the model of architectural beauty, in order 
that the child may be drawn rather than propelled along his 
literary career, until his taste be formed for intellectual pur- 
suits, and he acquire strength to encounter the difficulties of 
his more advanced course, when he shall find— 

"How hard it is to climb the steep, 
"Where fame's proud temple shines afar." 

At one end of this apartment, there should be a gallery con- 
structed somewhat after the model of galleries in the Infant 
schools of the present day, whereon the children may sit 
while the teacher is lecturing them in a collected capacity, 
and communicating ideas to their feeble comprehension. 

The spacious floor should be surrounded with lines for 
marching, on which the pupils may exercise when wearied 
with sitting, and around the middle of the floor may be drawn 
the circular orbits of the various planets belonging to the so- 
lar system, each in its appropriate sphere, with the sun in 
the center, around which orbits, the children may perform 
various evolutions, both amusing and instructive, all tending 
to relieve the tediousness of confinement, and produce a 
healthful flow of animal spirits. 

In addition to these, there should be hung around the room 
a great variety of splendid engravings, illustrating ditTerent 
subjects and events recorded in history, calculated to con- 
vey not only pleasure to the beholder, but fraught with use- 
ful information — each engraving being attended by a sys- 
tem of familiar questions and answers about the subjects 
which it illustrates. 

Besides those engravings, there should be various kinds of 
apparatus attached to the department, such as Black Boards, 
Geometricals, an Orrery, a small Globe, an Hydro-Geogra- 
phical Chart, «fec. 

2. Department number second, having the same dimen- 
sions as the first, is appropriated for the Museum, and should 
'be arranged and furnished with all the taste of the antiqua- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 99 

rian, the artisan, the classical scholar, and the student of the 
beauties and wonders of nature. From the animal, vegeta- 
ble, and mineral kingdoms should be collected together as 
large a variety of specimens as possible, from nature's most 
minute, to her vaster and more mysterious productions. Re- 
lics of the taste and learning and splendid achievements of 
antiquity, should be hunted up among the dilapidated tem- 
ples of Greece, the crumbling vestiges of Rome, and the bu- 
ried ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Whatsoever can 
exhibit the splendor of ancient architecture, or the skill of 
ancient sculpture, or the unrivaled delicacy of ancient paint- 
ing, should be collocated here. 

The whole room, with its furniture, should be so arranged 
that in one part of it, you should seem to be transported back 
three thousand years, and there left by your Pegasus to muse 
in silence among the majestic ruins of all that was once 
grand, and beautiful, and glorious. In another part, you 
should seem to be ushered into a dense forest, amid wolves, 
and tigers, and panthers, and lions, surrounded with all the 
bristling horrors of the wilderness, except merely its anima- 
tion. In another you should seem to be introduced into the 
bowers of spring, surrounded by feathered songsters perched 
upon the boughs of evergreens. In another you should seem 
in imagination to be handed down into the deep mines of the 
earth, where nature, the great chimist, works her wonders 
in secret. And in another you should seem to be ushered in- 
to the magnificent galleries of Grecian painters, or the work- 
shops of a Phidias and a Praxiteles, where you might watch 
their mimicry of nature, and see the magic metamorphoses of 
their pencil and chisel. 

3. Department number third, in dimensions twenty feet 
by twenty, should be furnished with all the fixtures and ap- 
paratus necessary for a SpelHng and Reading department. 
Across the end opposite. the entrance, should be constructed 
several rows of seats or benches upon an inclined plane, ele- 
vated two or three degrees above the level of the floor, in 
front of which benches, narrow desks should be constructed, 
on which the students may rest their books. Besides these 



100 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

fixtures, the room should be furnished with tables, charts, and 
apparatus, suitable for rudimental exercises in Grammar, 
Geography, and Arithmetic. 

4. Department number fourth, should be fitted up for a 
Geographical and Historical department. In this depart- 
ment, as well as in all the others, up to the Metaphysical 
department, wherein much of the knowledge which students 
gain is communicated by the lectures and explanations of 
the teacher, in conjunction with the studies of the pupil, 
the fixtures should be constructed after a common model. 
There should be an inclined plane, elevated as in a former 
case two or three degrees above the level of the floor. Upon 
this inclined plane, the benches and desks should be con- 
structed, not directly across the apartment, but somewhat 
diagonally from the sides to the center aisle, in such a man- 
ner that the pupils occupying each side of the aisle, should 
sit or stand facing the desk of the lecturer or professor; 
which desk should occupy a central position upon an eleva- 
ted platform directly in front of the class. This is the gene- 
ral model upon which I would have the fixtures constructed 
in all the scientific departments in which knowledge is to be 
acquired by means of lecturing in conjunction with study. 

Every possible facility to aid students in the acquisition 
of the sciences of Geography and History should be given. 
The walls of the apartment in which they are studied, should 
be literally papered with maps, among which should be an 
extensive map of the world, and four of the largest dimen- 
sions exhibiting the outlines of the four great quarters of 
the globe — Europe, Asia, Africa and America; besides a 
complete set of smaller maps, exhibiting separately and in- 
dividually the several empires, kingdoms, states, territo- 
ries, provinces, duchies, principalities, shires, counties, and 
towns of those four quarters, with the minute features of each 
as correctly deUneated as possible. 

Besides these there should be compasses, globes, qua- 
drants, and every other artificial help, which can illustrate 
the two sciences, and enable the teacher fully to explain, and 
the pupil to comprehend and retain them. 



LECTURES ON EDUOATIOX. 101 

5. Department number (ifth should be furnished suitably 
for a Writing, Mapping, Painting, Designing, and Engraving 
department. For those purposes, the apartment should be 
surrounded with one, and if necessary, with two rows of suit- 
able tables. In one part of the room the tables should be 
appropriated for Penmanship, and be furnished with ink- 
stands, sand-boxes, folders, and other necessary appendages 
of an escritoir, each article occupying its pi'oper situation. 
Another part should be appropriated for Mapping, and fur- 
nished with projecting scales, squares, pencils, pentagraphs, 
and other appropiiate instruments. Another for Painting, fur- 
nished with brushes, pencils, crayons, paints, et cetera. And 
another for Engraving, furnished with all the necessary tools 
and instruments for working on stone, lead, copper or steel. 
Besides to ornament the apartment, and to refine the taste of 
the Painter, Designer, and Engraver, it should be surroun- 
ded with the first productions in painting of the Grecian, 
Roman, Italian, French and English schools. 

6. Department number sixth should be furnished for the 
Grammatical and Rhetorical department. No apparatus of 
consequence, appropriate for the illustration of those scien- 
ces, could be introduced into this room. — Nothing, except it 
were charts of Grammar simplified, the synopses of verbs 
projected upon a large scale, and tables of general rules 
with particular exceptions, combined in one view, together 
with such other m^ns for illustrating those sciences and 
aiding the memory of the pupil to retain them, as might in 
process of time be invented. 

7. Department number seventh should be fitted for an 
Astronomical, Philosophical, and Chimical department. 
This room should represent a completely, furnished labora- 
tory. Every necessary article of apparatus should be pro- 
cured, for apparatus is far more essential to illustrate those 
sciences than any other. Indeed they could not be illustra- 
ted without it. When procured, each article should be 
arranged with perfect neatness and in its appropriate and 
natural order. In one part of the room, there should be a 
Chimical forge and bellows — a furnace for a large retort, 



102 LECTURES ON EDUCATIOIV. 

and a crucible for the fusion of metals. In another part the 
air-pump should be placed upon an appropriate platform. 
In another there should be an electric machine. In ano- 
ther a Voltaic and Galvanic batterj. In another a com- 
plete cabinet of salts, acids, metals, minerals, fossils, and 
vegetable substances for chimical experiments; and, in short, 
there should be an appropriate place for every article of 
apparatus. 

8. Department number eighth should be furnished with 
a complete cabinet of specimens for a Mineralogical, Geolo- 
gical and Botanical department. In it, there sliould, if 
possible, be collected earths from all the different regions 
and strata of the globe — stones, metals and minerals from 
all the different quarries and mines — and flowers of every 
hue, shape and texture from nature's garden. 

9. Department number ninth should be furnished for an 
Arithmetical department, with cubes, cones, diagrams, sur- 
veyor's instruments, chains, compasses, quadrants, logarith- 
mic charts and tables, and every other artificial aid which 
could be serviceable in assisting to illustrate common 
Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, Surveying, and Book- 
keeping. 

10. Department number tenth should be furnished for a 
Mathematical department, containing many articles of ap- 
paratus enumerated in number ninth. Particularly should 
there be a complete set of Nautical charts and instruments 
to assist in acquiring the art of Navigation, and diagrams 
appropriate to the illustration of Euclid's Elements. 

11. Department eleventh and twelfth should be fitted for 
a Classical department, or a department for the ancient and 
modern languages, and furnished with maps and charts and 
chronological tables, illustrative of the subjects contained 
in the several authors to be studied. 

12. Department number thirteenth should be furnished 
for the Metaphysical department with whatever of appara- 
tus which is now in existence, or that may hereafter be in- 
vented, for illustrating and throwing light upon Ethics, 
Metaphysics, Logic, and the Philosophy of the human mind. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 103 

13. Department number fourteenth should be splendidly 
fitted up for a Library and an Atheneum, with a complete 
case of enclosed shelves, surrounding the whole apartment, 
in front of which should be constructed a line of tables upon 
which should be arranged in oider, valuable periodicals and 
reviews. In the center of the apartment should be built an 
enclosed square, six feet by six, reaching up to the ceiling, 
around the outside of which should be constructed an ele- 
gant show-case of enclosed shelves for fancy bound books.* 

*The reader will, no doubt, accept of an apology from the author, 
if, in describing the manner in which each of those departments should 
be furnished with its own appropriate and peculiar fixtures and appa- 
ratus, there may have been somewhat of a sameness and tautology of 
terms and phrases, as well as a somewhat tedious prolixity in detail. 
But I see not how I could well have avoided such a sameness and pro- 
lixity, and have accomplished my object- It will be recollected that 
there is no edifice constructed after the model, nor any school con- 
ducted upon the precise plan proposed in the present lecture. I 
could not, therefore, deal in generalities, and, by way of abbreviature, 
refer to an existing model or models, but must particularize with mi- 
nuteness to be perspicuous. There will be many theoretical novelties 
in succeeding Lectures. It will consequently be necessary still to 
particularize minutely. Else the theories broached and the positions 
taken may be misapprehended and therefore be misrepresented. 



LECTURE III. 

PART II. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACIIEIIS. 

Having appropriated and furnished the several depart- 
ments, the proper classification of the pupils would next 
demand attention. Sound and mature judgment should 
guide in the performance of this task. And the person upon 
whom the task should devolve, should be vested with the 
authority to proceed in the classification according to his 
own best judgment, and sliould possess decision of character 
to execute promptly and efiiciently. Each pupil applying 
for admission should first be examined critically. Then his 
station should be assigned invariably in accordance with his 
attainments and capacities; never in accordance with the 
whim of the parent, or the caprice of the child, in opposition 
to correct classification, as frequently occurs at present. 
Those standing upon a footing of equality as to age, attain- 
ment and capacity, should be invariably assigned to the same 
department, let their own choice be what it may. Those 
just commencing their rudiments, should be assigned to the 
Rudimental or Primary department. Those having step- 
ped one gradation higher in their scientific progress, should 
be assigned to the Spelling and Reading department. Those 
having ascended one gradation higher still, should be intro- 
duced into the Geographical and Historical department. 
This order should, in short, be observed up through all the 
gradations of progress and classification, to the Metaphysical 
department. 

Every child in the community, who possesses a hale con- 
stitution, and whose physical powers are strong enough to 
sustain the mental effort, should be required to enter such an 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 105 

institution as we have been describing, and to ascend through 
every gradation of the scientific course from the Primary to 
the highest department; nor should he be permitted to gra- 
duate until he has become a proficient in every branch and 
completed the full course.* Are the child's parents poor? 
Have they not the means to provide a comfortable subsistence 
for themselves, much less to provide for the intellectual nour- 
ishment of their offspring? They should be provided for. 
Humanity requires it. Patriotism requires it. The safety 
of our country — the perpetuity of the Union, requires it. No 
difference should, in this respect, be made between the rich 
and the poor. There should be neutral ground. All should 
be admitted without precedence and without distinction, to 
the Pierian spring. All should share alike the public boun- 
ty. On principles of republican justice — on principles of 
ETERNAL justice, sliould they share it. In the course of the 
series, a plan will be submitted in its appropriate place, upon 
which the rich and the poor shall, without distinction, and 
without injustice, be admitted to the enjoyment of the same 
literary privileges. 

According to our proposed arrangement of the depart- 
ments and order of classification, a very large number of 
scholars can be congregated together and accommodated. 
And althougl), after a superficial investigation of our theory, 



* Objections, I apprehend, may be urged against this theory — urged 
strongly — urged vehemently. Else a new thing will have transpired 
under the sun. The objector will, I anticipate, say that this theory 
proposes to supersede the necessity of Colleges. Granted. It does 
propose to supersede their necessity. What then? Will some mon- 
strous evil be the result? Will the liberties of the people be thereby 
endangered? Will the firm pillars of our republic be thereby plucked 
away, and the magnificent temple of freedom brought 'down in ruins 
around our heads? No. But the very converse of those propositions 
will be the result. The liberties of the people will thereby be per- 
petuated — the pillars of the republic rendered trebly firm — and the 
temple of freedom still more magnificent. Too long have institutions 
of learning been richly endowed for the/eit*. Those funds should be 
equalized among the many. "Knowledge is power." The few have 
long possessed it. 'I'hey have long abused it. This power should 
now be equalized among the mass, and it WILL be equalized. 
11 



106 LECTURES OX EDUCATION. 

ttie first impression may be that it must necessarily, if redu- 
ced to practice, be enormously expensive; yet it will not, 
setting aside the outfit, be so expensive as the present com- 
mon school sjstem, as will be shown and fully demonstrated 
in the course of the series. For, as the whole attention of 
both pupil and teacher is, according to our theory, directed 
to the accomplishment of one individual object — as both are 
engaged in the acquisition of one individual science, with- 
out being subject to interruption by dissimilar questions res- 
pecting dissimilar sciences, and therefore not subject to dis- 
traction of thought, — one hundred or one hundred and fifty 
pupils can be taught by one teacher with greater ease and effi- 
ciency, provided that the room be sufficiently large to accom- 
modate that number without inconvenience, than fifty or even 
thirty can, by the same teacher, where he is t)bliged, as on 
the existing plan, to divide his time and attention between 
five, six, seven, or eight classes within the short period of 
three hours. Here is the reason. — Knowledge is communi- 
cated, according to our theory, by familieir lecturing and ex- 
planation, in conjunction^ with study. Now it is obvious 
that, while the teacher, standing in front of the class, is lec- 
turing one pupil, he is, at the same time, lecturing all the pu- 
pils and benefiting all as much as that one. The rceison- 
ing, then, is obviously founded upon principles of common 
sense, that the greater the number of pupils in that depart- 
ment, within certain prudential limits, the better, both on 
account of cheapness and increased facility in the acquisi- 
tion of the sciences. For if, with sufficient room and pro- 
per fixtures, one hundred and fifty pupils can be as easily 
and as efficiently instructed as fifty by the same teacher, it 
is evidently better and cheaper than the old system, and such 
an improvement is a desideratum which would justify some 
pains and effi)rt and expense to accomplish. 

According to our theory, it will be evident that there 
should be a teacher or rather a professor appointed exclu- 
sively for each class. Then would there be twelve profes- 
sors appointed to fill the twelve scientific departments, each 
pf which several departments would constitute a separate 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 107 

professorship. Those twelve professors could, according to 
our computation, teach eighteen hundred pupils, allotting 
one hundred and fifty students to each department. Whereas 
the same number of teachers could not instruct more than 
four hundred and twenty, upon the present plan, allotting 
thirty-five pupils to each teacher, as many as one should ever 
attempt to teach, where labor is not divided. 

The peculiar qualifications which each professor should 
possess for each of the various departments, will be reser- 
ved for Lectures fifth and sixth; and their general qualifica- 
tions, for the subject matter of Lecture seventh of the series. 
It may, however, be proper here to remark, with what 
views those professors should be selected. Particular refer- 
ence should be had, in their selection, to the motives by 
which they are induced to choose the profession of an in- 
structor of youth in preference to any other employment or 
profession. If they be induced to engage in the performance 
of its laborious duties from a desire to benefit their fellow- 
men in the most effectual way — if they wish thereby to per- 
petuate the institutions of their country — if they wish to 
enable the human race to cultivate and expand the intel- 
lect, by enriching it with every grace and virtue which alone 
makes man noble and godlike — then are they persons influ- 
enced by the best of motives, and will doubtless make the 
best of teachers. Their services should by all means be 
secured, as laborers in an appropriate sphere. 

When those professors are selected, the}" should be appoin- 
ted to fill the different professorships with a particular refer- 
ence to their different habits, tastes and qualifications. A 
person might, for instance, possess the requisite intellectual 
and moral qualities for a professor in the Primary depart- 
ment, who might nevertheless be at the same time but indif- 
ferently qualified for an instructor in the Arithmetical and 
Mathematical department; not, however, from any want of 
learning, but from a want of a bias of mind prompting a 
person naturally to prefer the particular science of mathe- 
matics, or, from the want of being, as we say, a mathematical 
genius. And so "rfVc vm^aT •' person might be perfectly 



108 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 



qualified, by taste, disposition, and ability, for a professor in 
the Arithmetical and Mathematical, department, who would 
not, at the same time, be at all qualified for the Infant or 
Primary department. The professors should, therefore, be 
appointed to their different professorships from a reference 
to their peculiar adaptedness to discharge the duties of that 
professorship. 

Having given a model for an Academic department, it 
now remains that we should consider the next edifice in the 
order of our plan — the Boarding department. This should 
be constituted of two wings appended to the Academic edi- 
fice, each thirty by forty-eight feet, and five stories high; 
each story being nine feet and one-fifth; making it equal in 
height to the Academic edifice, as will be seen by a refer- 
ence to its dimensions, although constructed with two addi- 
tional stories. Underneath the two wings, there should be 
a cellar equal in dimensions to the whole area of the buil- 
ding, elevated sufliciently above the surrounding court-yard 
to admit of windows and basement-rooms for various purpo- 
ses. Through the center of each wing, from front to rear of 
the edifice, and from the basement upward to the fifth story, 
should pass a hall, eight feet wide, similar to that intersecting 
the Academic edifice, dividing the two wings into four equal 
parts. Another hall, six feet wide, should again intersect 
the two wings lengthwise, answering to the two narrow halls 
of the Academic, and communicating with them by means 
of flights of steps from their termination into those halls, ei- 
ther upward or downward, as the case may demand. The 
first story, however, of either the right or the left hand wing, 
as taste may direct, shotild be an exception to the general 
rule of division. Through this story should pass only the 
wide hall which intersects the edifice from front to rear. 
The apartment situated on the right hand of this hall, in di- 
mensions twenty feet by thirty, should be appropriated for a 
dining hall for the boarders. Underneath this hall, the 
basement room of the same dimensions on the right hand of 
the intersecting hall, should be appropriated and furnished 
with every necessary utensil for a kitchen, constructed with 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 109 

moveable cupboards or small pantries that may be drawn 
up to the dining hall above bj means of pulleys, or let down 
at pleasure. The basement room on the left hand of the 
intersecting hall should be set apart and furnished for a wash 
and domestic work room. The apartment opposite to the 
dining room on the first floor, at the left hand of the intersec- 
ting space, should be appropriated for a musical saloon, and 
be furnished with violins, pianos, harps, guitars, and other 
necessary musical instruments. 

In this department, scholars should practice vocal and in- 
strumental music, which should, in my opinion, constitute 
one of the essential branches of a good and complete edu- 
cation, provided that the pupil shall possess suitable vocal 
powers — powers capable of cultivation, and an car or taste 
for music sufKciently delicate to discern harmony of sounds, 
and distinguish hetween chords and discords. This opinion 
is in accordance with the opinion of the Swiss and German 
teachers, and with the practice in the Swiss and German 
schools. In their introduction of music into their institu- 
tions, they seem to have had a threefold object in view — the 
cultivation of an important and peculiar faculty with which 
we are endowed — the promotion of cheerfulness and kindly 
feeling — and, as a consequence, the preservation of the stu- 
dent's health. 

The Annals of Education^ in remarking upon the first of 
those objects, says, that "The immediate purpose to be accom- 
plished is to perfect one of our senses, to exercise an impor- 
tant set of organs, and, in short, to cultivate one of those fa- 
culties which our Creator has seen fit to give us. To neg- 
lect it, is to imply that it was unnecessary; that it is use- 
less. It is treating a noble gift in a manner which involves 
ingratitude to the Giver." 

Again, in remarking upon the third object, the Annals 
says, that "It is rin invariable law of the human constitu- 
tion, that the employment of the various faculties is neces- 
sary to their preservation and perfection. Singing," the 
Annals continues to remark, "is of no small value as a mere 
physical exercise of the vocal organs, which invigorates the 



110 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

lungs, and thus promotes the health of the whole frame." 
Dr. Rush observes, that it is a means of protection from pul- 
monary diseases, so common in our climate; and adduces as 
a fact, in confirmation of this opinion, that the Germans in 
the circle of his practice were seldom afflicted with con- 
sumption, and that he had never known a single instance of 
i/oori-spitting among them. 

It is also remarked in the Annals, in confirmation of the 
proposition, that vocal music has a tendency to preserve the 
health of students, that "A distinguished professor of the 
island of Sicily, on hearing the sad tale of the influence of 
study on our literary men, inquired what were tlieir amuse- 
ments. None, was the answer. He expij^sed his astonish- 
ment, and added — 'No w^onder they die of study,' referring 
to the American students. He observed that he spent a 
given portion of the day in practicing instrumental and 
vocal music; and thought he could notjive without the re- 
lief which they afforded his mind." 

These extracts unite their testimony in support of the 
opinion that vocal and instrumental music should be intro- 
duced into our Institutions; and if introduced, there should 
Lc a distinct department appropriated and furnished for the 
purpose, in the manner of the musical saloon we have descri- 
bed; and that department should constitute a distinct pro- 
fessorship, to fill which, there should be a competent profes- 
sor, w^hosc duty it shall be to lecture and instruct the stu- 
dents of other departments as they may be sent in by classes 
from their respective departments, at dilTercnt seasons, in or- 
der that each student belonging to the Academic, may ha,ve 
the benefit each day of the instructions of that professor, and 
for a short period each day cultivate his vocal powers. 

Having digressed somewhat in our remarks, in order to 
suggest a few hints respecting the propriety, usefulness, and 
appropriate order of a musical dejiartment, v/hich, for rea- 
sons before stated, w^as not connected with the Academic, 
and has not, therefore, received our attention heretofore, we 
nov/ return from our digression, and proceed in subdividing 
the Boarding edifice into appropriate apartments, and as- 



LECrunES ON EDUCATION. Ill 

signing them to their appropriate uses. The second, thirct, 
fourth, and fifth stories of the wing containing the dining room 
and musical saloon, having been divided by tlie intersecting 
hall, each into four quarters, each of those quarters should 
again be subdivided into two apartments, in dimensions ten 
feet by twelve; making in those four stories thirty-two rooms, 
in dimensions ten feet by twelve. The first, second, third, and 
fourth stories of the other wing, should be divided into thirty- 
two apartments in the same manner, and of the same dimen- 
sions. The upper story of the wing is reserved without divi- 
sion for an especial purpose. It will be recollected, by a re- 
ference to the manner in which the Academic was modeled 
and appropriated, that the third story was a large hall, with 
a stage elevated at one end twelve feet deep. Now, al- 
though a stage twelve feet deep may be large enough for 
all purposes of public lecturing, and for all ordinary occa- 
sions of speaking and declamation, yet for extraordinary 
occasions it might not be large enough. We Avould, there- 
fore, propose that the whole area of the reserved story, 
thirty feet by forty-eight, should be thrown open and con- 
nected with the front stage on all occasions when necessity 
should seem to require it. And we would also propose thn,t 
various kinds of landscape and other scenery should be de- 
signed and painted for this stage by the Professor of Writing, 
Mapping, Painting, and Designing department, suitable 
to represent and illustrate different subjects which might 
be spoken by students, on public evenings and days of com- 
mencement, as well as to ornament the stage, and interest 
the public more deeply in the various performances. "Bat, 
sir," says some objector to the author, "would you have us un- 
derstand that you intend to advocate the establishment of a 
theater, in conjunction with j^our proposed institution, and 
the introduction of theatrical exercises?" By no means, sir 
objector; if your question has reference to theaters or theat- 
rical exercises according to the common acceptation of the 
terms theater and theatrical — if it have reference to the thea- 
ters established in our cities, those sinks of moral pollution — 
those hotbeds of all crimes — those porticoes of perdition, or 



112 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

to the theatrical exercises which are there exhibited, many, 
very many of wliich exercises, no modest, decent person can 
gaze at without bhishing. I advocate no such shameful met- 
amorphoses from retiring, lovely, virgin delicacy, to bold, im- 
modest, pert, impudent forwardness, and effrontery, as may 
be witnessed whenever a female shall descend so low from 
the station she is destined to fill, and become so degraded as 
to condescend to become a gazing stock upon the public 
stage, and there play the antic, silly, shameless capers of a 
Madam Ilutin and others; which capers are denominated 
in theatrical phraseology — "fancy dances." Away with 
such nonsense. Away with such indecent sights. Away 
with such lewd exhibitions, the very mention of which is 
enough to make an honest person blush, "crimson red," in 
honest company. 

"Fathers and mothers! your children should never visit 
such places, nor witness such sights. If your sons and 
your daughters be properly instructed as to the nature and 
tendency of theaters, and theatrical exercises, as exhibi- 
ted in cities, they would never wish to visit or see them. 
No! they would turn away from them with instinctive abhor- 
rence." But to my subject. I hereby utterly disclaim any 
intention to advocate the establishment of a theater for pu- 
pils, or the introduction into an institution of learning of the- 
atrical exercises, according to the common acceptation of 
the terms. I hereby utterly disclaim the propriety, under 
any circumstances whatever, of females acting upon the 
stage before a public audience; whether it be in theaters, or 
public exhibitions at Academies. They are out of their ap- 
propriate sphere, and should never be seen there. And fur- 
ther, I utterly disclaim the propriety of speaking or acting 
any dialogue or declamation wherein are contained or by 
which are conveyed sentiments which would pain or offend 
the most delicate ear. Having made this full disclaimer, 
let me not be misappreliended wlicn I express my belief that 
the introduction of appropriate and splendid scenery upon 
an Academic stage, could not possibly have the slightest 
tendency to immorality. What is there immoral in the ex- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 113 

hibilion of a well painted landscape? What in the view of 
a city, with the bustle and the business of its busy population? 
What in moon-light scenes upon land or water? What in 
caves and desolate mountains? What in old castles, or the 
dilapidated fragments of Babylon, Thebes and Palmyra — or 
the ivy covered ruins of the Grecian and Roman temples, 
either seen by the glare of day, or by the mellow tints of 
moonlight? What is there — what can there be, in all these 
tending in the remotest degree to immorality? Absolutely 
nothing. And no one but a sectarian bigot, who would 
"strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," could discover any 
tendency to immorality. Therefore, I advocate, decidedly 
advocate, the introduction into the Academic institute of ap- 
propriate scenery; as it will impart greater interest to vari- 
ous useful exercises, both to those who exhibit and to those 
who witness exhibitions. 

The two wings of the Academic department have now 
been considered as to dimensions, divisions, and some of the 
appropriations of those divisions. According to the model 
there were thirty-two apartments in each of the two wings, 
each apartment of which being ten feet by twelve, making 
sixty-four rooms in all, besides the dining room and musical 
saloon already described and appropriated. These sixty- 
four rooms should be fitted up for dormitories for the Aca- 
demic family of teachers and boarding scholars, which dor- 
mitories, sixty-four in number, would accommodate one hun- 
dred and twenty-eight persons. Perhaps there might be a 
demand for a much larger number of dormitories. In that 
case the wings might be extended to an indefinite length, 
subject at the same time to be divided according to the model 
suggested, and to retain the same architectural proportions 
as to width, and height, and equal extent of the wings. In- 
deed, did the community but apprehend the vast benefit to 
be derived from boarding every pupil in the Academic fam- 
ily, under the peculiar charge of the professors and under 
their parental guardianship, the dormitories would have to 
be multiplied so as to accommodate one or two thousand, in- 
stead of one or two hundred. But as I shall consider this 
15 



114 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

particular subject somewhat minutely in my next Lecture, 
where it will be attempted to be shown how "a Division of 
Labor among Teachers can be eifected in sparsely populated 
country towns," I shall defer the further consideration of 
the subject to that Lecture, and shall proceed to plan the 
work shop, lay out the garden, and describe a spot suitable 
for a gymnasium. 

At the rear of the main edifice, and perhaps at the termi- 
nation of the Academic grounds, a long wooden building 
parallel with the main edifice should be constructed two sto- 
ries high, and sufficiently large for the accommodation of 
three classes at a time, or three or four hundred students. 
Perhaps an edifice one hundred feet long, and twenty feet 
wide, would be large enough for their accommodation. On 
each side of this edifice, from end to end of the two stories, 
there should be constructed suitable w^ork benches for the 
accommodation of the young artisans, and suitable tools 
should be furnished. In this Mechanical department, various 
kinds of work should be operated; such as plain joiner's and 
carpenter's work, cabinet work, carved work, chair making, 
ct cetera; by which labor each student, after he has arrived at 
sufficient age, shall be able to earn something towards de- 
fraying the expenses of his Academic course. Each of the 
ten highest classes should be daily engaged in this labor for 
a certain allotted portion of time, in the following manner, 
and after the following order: At seven o'clock in the mor- 
ning, all the students belonging to the Academic family 
should invariably breakfast. At eight o'clock, all the stu- 
dents belonging to the Academic department should repair 
to their several departments at the ringing of the bell. Be- 
ing called to order by their professors, the third, fourth, and 
fifth classes should make preparation to repair to the Me- 
chanical department, each class headed and superintended 
by its respective professor, who shall have been himself quali- 
fied for a master artisan of his class by a previous appren- 
ticeship. There those three classes should be required to 
labor steadily and industriously for one hour, at some appro- 
priate mechanical employment, under the direction and su- 



LECTTIRES ON EDUCATION. 115 

perintendence of its respective, professor — an employment 
which shall not only avail something in a pecuniary point of 
view, but which shall preserve the health of the pupils, and 
make their spirits constantly elastic and buoyant, and qualify 
them for intense application to study without injury to 
their health and constitution. When these three classes 
have spent an hour in the operations of the work-shop, they 
should then be remanded by their professors to their several 
Academic departments, and to their studies, for the remain- 
der of the forenoon. The classes numbered sixth, seventh, 
and eighth, should now leave their several departments, at 
ten o'clock, in the same order as the former, superintended 
by their respective professors, and should, like the former 
three classes, labor one hour in the Mechanical Institute in 
some appropriate occupation. They should then retire to 
their respective departments, giving place at eleven o'clock 
to the four remaining classes, the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and 
twelfth, who should again be employed in mechanical ope- 
rations until noon. The same routine of exercises in the 
work-shop should be observed in the afternoon as in the 
forenoon, making two hours mechanical labor for each stu- 
dent during the day. All the proceeds of the labor of each 
student should be kept separately. Once a quarter there 
should be a public sale of all the completed articles which 
have not been previously disposed of at private sale, and 
each student should have the avails of his own work, which 
avails he should appropriate towards the payment of the ex- 
penses incurred in his Academic course. The peculiar ben- 
efits resulting from such a system of manual labor, will be 
deferred for the subject matter of remark in a future liCC- 
ture, as ample justice could not be done to the subject in 
the present connection; and doubtless it will there appear 
manifest, as it must at all times to every reflecting mind, that 
those benefits cannot but be vast and incalculable. 

But does any of that lordling race, who consider it an 
amazing stoop of condescension from the loftiness of their 
fancied superiority, to pollute their delicate fingers with 
labor — does any one, I say, of that lordling race rise up an4 



116 LECTURES aN EDUCATION. 

saj, with the air of wounded dignity — "What! Have mat- 
ters come to this crisis! Has the leveHing principle so far 
prevailed that you, sir, or any other man, shall have the 
effrontery to propose that MY children should enter an in- 
stitution where they should be required TO WORK TWO 
HOURS Ex\CH DAY? AVhere they should be required 
also to labor WITH THE CHILDREN OF MECHA- 
NICS AND COMMON PEOPLE? Why, sir, the bare 
proposition I should consider a downright, insufferable in- 
sult, and one which should not be borne patiently. Indeed, 
upon this plan you would bring down all the dignity and 
respectability of the higher classes of society, upon a par 
with boors, and clowns, and negroes, and low Irishmen." 
The author might in his rejoinder hold up this aristocratic 
tirade to the ridicule and contempt which it deserves, and 
which it would receive from every man of common sense. 
But I choose rather expostulation with this doughty sir. 
You undoubtedly expect, sir, that your offspring are born to 
some magnificent destiny — that they are peculiar favorites 
of Deity, and are therefore destined to affluence and to hon- 
orable promotion in the ranks of society. Parental affec- 
tion and solicitude wish it, and therefore anticipate it. 
But is it not very possible, sir, that your hopes and high 
anticipations may all be blasted? Grant that your offspring 
are now as promising as a fond father or mother could rea- 
sonably desire; yet may they not be subject to the reverses 
of fortune ? If you can leave them a large inheritance, may 
not "riches take to themselves wings and fly away," and 
they be made as poor as the poorest laborers whom you now 
despise? If left to grow up in eflcminacy — if taught either 
by precept or by example to consider labor a disgrace — may 
not those very riches with which you propose to make them 
affluent and honorable, and to place them upon an eminence 
of superiority above the common mass who earn their 
bread by the sweat of their brow — ma_y not those very riches 
prove their ruin? May they not become intemperate, and 
thus be plucked, like "Lucifer, son of the morning," from the 
high heaven of their parent's most sanguine hopes, and all 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 117 

their glories quenched in the filthy sinks of inebriation? 
May they not thus become the loathsome objects of disgust 
to those very men, whom you now so much affect to de- 
spise? Observe men. Read History. Consult examples. 
Is there not enough to convince you that these imagined 
possibilities may all become realities? If so, then, would it 
not, sir, be sound policy to look ahead, and make all possible 
preparation for the exigencies of the future? Your sons 
may be saved from the deleterious influences of all those 
imagined possibilities, provided that you correctly educate 
their physical as well as their mental faculties. By such 
an education they may be saved from effeminacy — from in- 
temperance — from ruin. And even if there were no occa- 
sion to cultivate their physical powers in conjunction with 
their intellectual, and were it not even possible that they 
should ever be under the necessity of engaging in manual 
labor, in order to procure a livelihood; yet it might essen- 
tially benefit their health, and could not, as I conceive, dis- 
grace them in any wise, except in the estimation of a dandy 
— that peculiar non-essentiality in God's creation. Kings 
and Emperors in olden time considered it no very great 
stoop of condescension in them to till the ground and labor 
in their fields. Why then should a would-be aristocrat of re- 
publican America make objections to manual labor schools; 
lest, forsooth, they should be degraded by permitting their 
children to enter those schools and associate upon a footing 
of equality with the indiscriminate herd of mankind? But 
if such shall continue to be the lofty ideas and expressions of 
any man, or any set of men, in these United States, all rea- 
son and argument to the contrary notwithstanding, let them 
know assuredly that "Ae that exalteth himself shall be abased^'' 
— yea, be brought down to the dust, by an indignant 
public sentiment. If they wish to see their sons promoted 
to stations of honor, how do they expect that their sons can 
acquire those stations? Do they not know that most of the 
stations of honor — yea, that indirectly, all of those stations, 
are the property of the j?eop/e — the mass of the people; and 
that the sovereign people give to whomsoever they will? And 



118 LECTURES OJf EDUCATION. 

can those representatives of aristocracy, as would hold forth 
such sentiments in independent America, of inherent supe- 
riority over the mass, expect to receive any gift from a despi- 
sed commonalty? Certainly no other gift, than unmingled 
contempt — no other than an unnoticed and perpetual obscu- 
rity. 



LECTURE IV. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACHERS. 

In pursuance of the plan suggested in a former Lecture, we 
will proceed, in the present, to lay out, in their appropriate 
order, the grounds for the Botanic garden. The unoccu- 
pied space, in the rear of the Academic and Boarding edi- 
lices, should contain, at the least calculation, two acres. The 
one-half of those two acres, located at the left hand of the 
broad aisle, leading from the rear center of the main edifi- 
ces to the center of the Mechanical department, should be 
appropriated for this garden. These grounds should, in the 
first place, be broken up with the plough, mellowed by fre- 
quent spading, richly manured, and prepared in the best pos- 
sible manner, for cultivation. They should, then, be divi- 
ded into four quarters, by the intersection of four alleys, 
eight feet broad, crossing each other at right angles. Those 
alleys should be depressed a foot or eighteen inches, below 
the surface of the four sections, and be guarded at the sides, 
by curb stones, similar to the curb stones at she sides of streets 
in cities. They should then be filled up within six or eight 
inches of the surface of the surrounding grounds, with clean, 
coarse gravel, from the beach of rivers, or should be paved 
with stone or brick. Those four quarters should again be 
svibdivided, each into four quarters, by the intersection of 
two narrow alleys, six feet broad, crossing each other at 
right angles, and constructed in a manner similar, as to cur- 
bing, paving, or gravelling, to the two main alleys. Those 
sixteen sections, thus intersected by alleys, should be num- 
bered and appropriated systematically; and, in order to coin- 
cide with this arrangement of the grounds, or some similar 
arrangement, a standard wox'k, upon the science of Botany, 



120 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

should be published for the particular use of the proposed 
institution, in which the whole vegetable kingdom should 
be classified into sixteen distinct classes or departments, ac- 
cording to the most natural and appropriate order of the 
division of botanic specimens, into distinct species and genus. 
Then according to the order of classification, contained in 
this standard work, those botanic specimens, described in 
the first division of the proposed classification, should be 
planted in the first division of the garden — those described 
in the second division, should be planted in the second 
division of the garden — those in the third, in the third divi- 
sion; and so on throughout the sixteen proposed departments 
of the vegetable kingdom. Every specimen contained in 
the sixteen classes of the book, should be cultivated in the 
sixteen departments of the garden; and, if it should be ne- 
cessary for the cultivation of some of those specimens, per- 
haps exotics from tropical regions, there should be hot-beds 
and green-houses constructed for this purpose, in each de- 
partment of the garden. 

In a convenient location, somewhere near the center of 
the garden, there should be constructed an elegant foun- 
tain, both for ornament, and for the supply of the garden 
with water, somewhat after the model of fountains, in some 
of the splendid gardens of English nobles, where, either a 
cascade of water is constantly pouring, in a continuous sheet, 
into a vat or stone reservoir below, thus cooling the surroun- 
ding atmosphere; or, a jet spouting up to a considerable 
height, and descending into the reservoir in showers; or 
else a stream gurgling down from the yawning mouths of 
carved lions, or dragons, or some other monsters of the de- 
sert, into that reservoir. This fountain should be supplied 
by means of logs or leaden tubes, from some neighboring 
spring, or else from a large cistern, constructed in some ele- 
vated position, near a well or pump ; which cistern should be 
replenished daily by the students. 

This botanic garden should be cultivated and kept in order 
exclusively, by the several classes of the Academic, each 
class having its particular department of labor assigned to 



I,ECTURES ON EDUCATION. 121 

it, which department should be exchanged weekly for a new 
department in the garden, in order that the pupils, while 
engaged in cultivating the several departments, and going 
through the whole routine, may, at the same time, under 
the direction and tuition of their respective professors, ac- 
quire a thorough knowledge of the principles of classifica- 
tion, as well as a knowledge of the peculiar medicinal qua- 
lities of each botanic specimen. The students should cul- 
tivate the garden, and study the classification and botanical 
qualities of the plants in the following order: — The twelve 
classes of the Academic Institute should occupy the sixteen 
departments of the garden, according to their appropriate 
gradation. Class number first should cultivate, for one 
week, department number first of the garden, and a quar- 
ter of number second. Class number second should culti- 
vate the remaining three quartei's of department number 
second and the half of number third. Class number third 
should cultivate the remaining half of department number 
third of the garden, and three quarters of number fourth. 
This order should be observed throughout the sixteen de- 
partments of the garden by the twelve classes of the Acade- 
mic Institute, eaCh class cultivating, at the same time, one 
department and a quarter of the garden. Each class should 
exchange its sphere of cultivation weekly, for the next de- 
partment below, in the gradation of botanical classification: 
and, in this manner, the twelve classes will each have gone 
through the routine of the garden in twelve weeks; and, by 
going through this routine in succession, every quarter, they 
must soon obtain a perfect knowledge of the science of Bo- 
tany, under the tuition of their respective professors, even 
while they are taking the necessary exercise for the preser- 
vation of their liealth, and nurturing the various botanic spe- 
cimens into maturity. 

In this garden, the classes should work thirty or forty min- 
utes before bi'eakfast, and about the same number of minutes 
after all the exercises and studies of the school have closed; 
which, together with the time employed in the laboi"s of the 
Mechanical department, would make a little more than 
1(1 



123 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

three hours of amusing and profitable exercise each day; 
which Avould, probably, be sufficient to preserve a healthful 
equilibrium between the mental and physical natures. 

The remainder of the Academic grounds unappropriated, 
situated at the right hand of the broad alley, leading from 
the rear of the main edifice, to the front of the Mechanical 
Institute, in dimensions an acre, should be planned for a 
Gymnasium, or play grounds and pleasure grounds for the 
pupils, which should be furnished with the proper fixtures, 
for various gymnastic exercises. Although it be not the in- 
tention of these Lectures to advocate the introduction, into 
the proposed institution, of those exercises, as proper means 
for the preservation of the health of students, since, for the 
accomplishment of this purpose, Manual Labor, in the Me- 
chanical Institute and in the Botanic Garden, is vastly pre- 
ferable; yet they should be connected with the proposed 
i'nstitution, as an appendage, necessary to render the model 
as complete as possible. Then, in proceeding to lay out 
those grounds, there should be a circular alley, constructed 
around the appropriated plat, ten or twelve feet broad, en- 
closing a complete sphere, whose diameter should be as 
large as the dimensions of the plat will admit. This alley 
should be depressed a little below the surface of the sur- 
rounding green, enclosed with curb stones, and graveled, in 
an oval form, with coarse gravel. Around this circle, vari- 
ous athletic exercises should be performed by the smaller 
pupils, such as trundling the hoop, running foot-races, and 
riding little ponies, trained for the purpose. Besides this 
cilley, there should be locations marked out and allotted for 
various kinds of play with the ball. There should be wa- 
ving and circular swings, see-saws, apparatus for rope- 
jumping, et cetera. In some convenient location, perhaps 
on one or two sides of the Gymnasium, there should be con- 
structed a long, covered arbor or arena, for gymnastic exer- 
cises in stormy and uncomfortable weather, which arbor 
should consist of a roof, supported by frequent pillars, ten or 
twelve feet high, around which mi gat be entwined vines of 
grape and l-oney-suckle. If possible to obtain it, a small 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 123 

stream or spring of living water should pass through the 
midst of those pleasure grounds; and, on the rear of the 
ground, should he built, a large hath for the use of the pu- 
pils, which should he supplied with water from the spring or 
stream, if such an ona thcj-e were, and, if not, it should be 
supplied from the large reservoir which supplies the foun- 
tain in the Botanic garden. Those grounds should, finally, 
be planted with trees, sparsely scattered over them, for fruit, 
shade and ornament. 

This last sketch of the Gymnasium completes the princi- 
pal features of the model, which the author has in mind, for 
the Academic grounds and edifices. This model is, indeed, 
a rude one — the mere foundiition and framework "of the sys- 
tem. The author's object has been to lay the foundation 
broadly and immovably upon the basis of common sense 
principles — to bring the materials together, and fit them for 
their particular uses, and to erect the frame of the super- 
structure, leaving, to the qualified artisan, the task of com- 
pleting that superstructure, and improving the model into 
architectural proportion, beauty, and splendor. 

It is not anticipated, that the proposed model, for the Aca- 
demic, Boarding, Mechanical and other edifices, — for the 
apparatus, and for the appropriation of the Academic grounds, 
will, in all cases, and in all particulars, be regarded as a cor- 
rect pattern for imitation; — perhaps not in any case, nor in 
any particular. The author is not at all sanguine hi the 
belief that it will be considered as a correct pattern. Obser- 
vation, indeed, admonishes him not to expect it. Analogy 
admonishes him not to expect it. For no plan of material 
consequence, for the improvement of any system, or for the 
amelioration and benefit of any portion of the human race, 
was ever yet received with entire approbation, so soon as 
suggested. There is, therefore, no reason whereon to found 
a plausible expectation that the improvements under consi- 
deration will be received with unqualified and entire appro- 
bation. The author proceeds in his work with no such ex- 
pectations. He rather expects the contrary, as an unavoida- 
ble consequence, resulting from the peculiar organization 



124 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

of society. The impelling motives, however, which are the 
secret springs of his efforts to raise the standard of educa- 
tion, are above the influence or control of any anticipated 
results. Prompted by a sense of imperative duly^ he has 
undertaken the task of publishing a volume, in which he 
would fain suggest a system of education, as perfect as, ac- 
cording to his humble estimation, the circumstances and 
exigencies of human condition will warrant; and, in order 
fully to suggest such a system, it seemed appropriate and 
necessary, that he should suggest all that would be required, 
in his judgment, for the completion and perfection of such 
a system, although there might be some things, which might, 
to the uninterested observer, or the superficial investigator, 
appear superfluous. He has, therefore, given a model for the 
Academic grounds, fixtures and edifices, which he considers 
is calculated to fulfill the most efficiently, the intention of his 
undertaking. He has been somewhat minute in detail, in 
order that there might be no misapprehension of his design; 
and he would now be understood to assert, that he is fully 
and firmly persuaded, in his own mind, that if his proposed 
system could, in all its practical bearings and operations, be 
fairly tested, it would prove an efficient corrector of errors 
in common schools, and fulfill the measure of his most san- 
guine expectations. 

It may be proper here to remark, what may not have oc- 
curred to the mind of the reader, that the proposed institu- 
tion, of which wo have sketched a design, is intended exclu- 
sively for Males. The opinion here expressed, that males 
and females should never be educated together promis- 
cuously, in the same institution, nor, indeed, in the same 
edifice, is the result of a firm conviction of its impropriety, 
produced by a long and close observation. The reasons 
why they should not, are many, and various, and obviously 
plausible. The sciences which each should be required to 
study, should, it is true, be in the aggregate, alike; since 
the object of their acquisition is not, or at least ought not to 
be, a particular qualification for any particular station or 
isolated duty; but a general expansion of the mind, a gene- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 125 

ral fund of intelligence, and a gehcral qualification for the 
duties of life. But there sliould, however, in the manner of 
elucidation and application by the professor or lecturer, be 
several material points of difference in the two cases, as well 
as several material points of difference in the methods of 
government and moral discipline. While the object of the 
mental and moral discipline, in the one case, should be to 
cultivate the sterner, bolder, and manlier qualities which 
shall fit the subject to encounter, with untamed resolution, 
the ills and hard fortunes of life — to grapple fearlessly with 
the gigantic spirit of adversity's storm, and hold an onward 
course through every opposing barrier to a successful result, 
or sustain disappointment and misfortune with unmurmuring 
fortitude — while this, I say, should be the object of mental 
and moral discipline, in the one case, it should be the object, 
in the other case, to cultivate bland and gentle accomplish- 
ments — to foster the amiable and retiring virtues, which 
shrink from the public gaze, and expand to full view only in 
the calm retreats of the domestic sphere — to imbue the spirit 
with those sweet dispositions, which peculiarly qualify a 
person to preside over the nurseries of young immortals, and 
to give to the first germs and tendrils of infant thought, and 
feeling, and inclination, their bias and direction. Now, 
those two diverse objects, it is evident, could not be effected 
by the same discipline, exercised in the same department, 
where the tendency of instruction must be to affect all those 
who come under its influence alike, making tillowance for 
the trifling modification of that influence, by the contrary 
influences of nature, fashion, and popular opinion, exhibited 
in the two cases. But were these two separate institutions 
devoted to the exclusive accommodation of either males or 
females, then might those two diverse objects be fully attain- 
ed, though the scientific course pursued in the two institu- 
tions, were, in most respects, the same. For, with reference 
to the two objects of discipline, the professors might daily 
and hourly pour instruction into the minds of pupils, in 
the course of their progress, and imperceptibly implant that 
bias and those impresses, by familiar remarks upon subjects 



126 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

of morals and manners, Avhich should fully accomplish those 
objects. 

There is another reason, stronger than any which has been 
given, why there should be separate institutions, for the ex- 
clusive accommodation of cither males or females. It is a 
fact, which all experience and analogy corroborates, that 
they cannot study together, in the same institution, without 
having their attention divided between the sciences and a 
powerful natural attraction. Now, it is evident, that pupils 
should not be placed in an institution, where they must, ne- 
cessarily, be subject to come under the constant influence of 
such an attraction — an attraction deeply founded in natural 
principles — an attraction so strong as to divide, in spite of 
the most rigid stoicism, the attention of the ardent souled pu- 
pil, between his literary pursuits and itself. When such an 
attraction exists, though in itself considered confessedly inno- 
cent, the pupil should be removed from its vicinity and its in- 
fluence during the allotted term of his pupilage. If he shall 
afterwards see fit to yield himself a captive to the charms of 
that attraction, I know not that we have a reasonable objec- 
tion to offer; especially, since the bondage under which it 
would bring him, would be far from an Algerine bondage. 

While the subject of female education is under discussion, 
it may be proper here to remark, that opinions upon that sub- 
ject are various. Some maintain the position, that females 
should receive an education only in the bare rudiments of sci- 
ence — that they should possess just knowledge sufHcient to 
read fluently, and to write a legible and grammatical letter, if 
circumstances should require; while others maintain the con- 
trary position, tliat they should be qualified for something 
higher than mere household drudgery — that their literary 
privileges and advantages should be equal to those of the 
other sex, in all respects, excepting in. the studies prepara- 
tory to the several learned professions; and that only by en- 
joying such privileges and advantages, could they be quali- 
fied to fill with dignity, their ajjpropriate sphere. The lat- 
ter opinion is undoubtedly correct. It disowns and disal- 
lows that Turkish sentiment, that women are a kind of infe- 



•LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 127 

rior intelligence, born to be slaves, and it disowns and disal- 
lows every other analogous sentiment. There can be no 
plausible christian reason shown why provision should not 
be made for the educiition and for the intellectual elevation 
of females, as liberal as the provision made for the other sex. 
Their station in society, although different, is as important, 
and, to fill it properlj'^, there is required as much talent, and 
as many accomplishments, though of a class and character 
somewhat different. Woman moves in an important sphere. 
Upon her influence, though exerted only in the still retreats 
of the domestic circle, far from the shocks which agitate the 
world, hangs suspended the determination and order of events 
vastly momentous. Although she take no part in political con- 
tests — although she be not permitted by immutable laws of na- 
tia*e, to fill offices of trust, profit, and influence, nor to mingle 
with the bustling throng in active life, where she might have 
the opportunity, if she had the skill, to sway the pui)lic will 
for the accomplishment of her purposes — although she have 
no voice, as an advocate in the courts of justice as a repre- 
sentative in the halls of legislation, or as senator in tlie 
grand councils of the republic — yet she szvaysthe destinies of 
notions — strange as it may seem — SHE SWAYS THE 
DESTINIES OF NATIONS. Kingdoms rise and fall as she 
wills tlieir stability or their dissolution. Republics flourish 
in vigorous manhood, or grow sickly, decay, and tumble into 
imins, as she exerts according to her pleasure a benign or a 
deleterious influence. "How," — do you ask in astonish- 
ment, — "how?" Simply, by the bias she gives to the infant 
mind, in the solitude of the nursery. It is there she sways 
the destinies of nations. It is there she gives stability to the 
thrones of potentates, or plucks away their pillars, and hurls 
them to quick and fearful ruin. It is there she gives perpe- 
tuity to republics, or saps their foundation, and lets down 
into the dust all their colossal grandeur. This conclusion is 
in accordance with observation and sound logic. During 
six or eight years of a child's infanc}*, impressions are made 
upon that child's mind and heart which can never be erased, 
through all the vicissitudes of life, and the bustling, souU 



1*28 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. , 

absorbing scenes and occupations of manhood. They are 
made in the nursery — made by the precepts and examples 
of the mother. Generally speaking, it is in the nursery and 
in the lap of the mother, that tlie child receives those im- 
pressions, which shall either make him a Washington, an Al- 
fred, a William Tell, a Kosciusko; or a Buonaparte, a Nero, 
a Cajsar, or an Alexander the Great — which shall either 
make him an honest man, or a thief and a robber — a faith- 
ful friend, or a Judas Iscarriot. Go and visit families. Scru- 
tinize the character, listen to the conversation, watch the 
conduct, learn the peculiar habits and disposition of the mo- 
ther, and then take notice of the children, and you will see 
in nine cases out of ten, marked and striking resemblances 
between the two. Is the mother well educated, refined in 
manners, prudent in conversation, chaste and modest in be- 
^^rViOur, possessing all the lovely and delicate virtues and gra- 
ces of a truly accomplished female — or, is she ignorant, vul- 
gar and coarse in manners, imprudent in conversation, un- 
chaste and immodest in beliaviour, exhibiting all the unlovely, 
indelicate, graceless traits of a groveling minded woman? 
The offspring reflect the Ukeriess of the mother almost fea- 
ture for feature. Is she a christian or an infidel — does she 
breathe the spirit of devotion towards her God, and of bene- 
volence towards her kindred of the human race ; or does she 
blaspheme the Eternal by her graceless profanities, and ex- 
hibit perpetual animosity towards her fellow creatures? Her 
children imperceptibly drink in the self same spirit. They 
either reverence the Omnipotent, who throws the mantle 
of thick darkness over the skies, and rides sublimely upon 
the wings of the storm-cloud, and look upon the human race 
as one great brotherhood; or else lift up their brow to the 
heavens, and with all the hardihood of blasphemous impo- 
tence, spit their curses at the Thunderer, and harbor eternal 
animosity in their bosoms toward all the human kind, and 
personate the character of desperate ruflians. The daugh- 
ters may become Hannah Moores or Fanny Wrights — their 
sons Luthers or Julians, in strict accordance with the influ- 
ence exerted over them by their mothers. The remark, 



LECTURES ON EDlJdATION< 120 

then, is fully justified if these things be trUe, that woman im- 
perceptibly sways the destinies of nations, and sends forth 
from the nursery, an influence over the wide globe, either 
for good or for ill, which must tell upon, its records, either 
sublimely glorious, or fearfully dark. Since such, then, is 
the unobtrusive but omnipotent influence of females, will 
any man of candor assert, that it is still unimportant whether 
they be educated or not? Does not the evidence in favor of 
the position, that they should be educated — that they should 
be well educated — that no pains nor expense should be spared 
for their education — amount to a full demonstration of its 
correctness. Shall the great secret mainspring, by which 
direction and determination are given to most of the move- 
ments of the world, be neglected or overlooked? Certainly 
not. The grand principle is now developed, by which, the 
immense mass of mind may be moulded into whatsoever form 
the artist wishes. Shall such a principle be regarded and 
treated as of no consequence, by patriots, and statesmen, 
and philanthropists? I trust not. The man who loves his 
country — the man who desires to cement the foundations of 
our republic, and to impart increasing strength and stability 
to the superstructure of the government, and the constitution 
— the man, in short, who wishes to give to the Union a per- 
petuity commensurate with the existence of the globe, will 
gladly avail himself of this principle. He will endeavor in 
every possible way, and by every possible means, to give a 
genial bias to the minds which are destined in their turn to 
bias the world, and to give it that self same bias, which they 
themselves have received. The patriot, the statesman, and 
the philanthi'opist will, therefore, doubtless advocate the es- 
tablishment of institutions for the liberal education of fe- 
males, and plead, that they should be endowed with no chur- 
lish appropriations. 

As no model has yet been submitted, expressly, for a female 
institute, let it be remarked, that the model for the Aca- 
demic and other edifices of the male department, as well as 
the classification of pupils, and the regular gradation of sci- 
entific progress in that department, should be adopted, with 
17 



130 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

a few obvious exceptions founded upon natural propriety. 
There should evidently he a difference in mental and moral 
discipline in the two instances, although the course of study 
should be precisely the same. The object of instruction, in 
the one case, independently of the mere expansion of the 
mind, should be to fit the subject for the vicissitudes and exi- 
gencies of active life; while in the other case, the object 
should be to fit the subject for the important duties of house- 
wifery and the nursery. But some one proposes the ques- 
tion, whether, for such a purpose, it be necessary that fe- 
males should be required to pursue a course of study pre- 
cisely like that pursued in the institution for males. "Is it 
necessary that they should witness Philosophical and Chimi- 
cal experiments, in order to make a good pudding, or set a 
good table? Is it necessary that they should study Mathe- 
matics, in order to mend a coat, or knit a pair of stockings? 
Is it necessary that they should become versed in Ethics, 
Metaphysics, Logic, and the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 
in order to know when their children do right or wrong, and 
how to teach them good behaviour?" These questions are 
however by no means appropriate. They are irrelevant to 
the subject under discussion. It has not been advocated or 
pretended, that such a course was necessary, in order to accom- 
plish such objects as are specified b}^ the querist. There is 
an object of vastly higher consequence to be attained, than 
a qualification merely to administer to the appetites of the 
Epicurean, who seems to consider the body as more impor- 
tant than the intellect. Woman should be fitted to move 
with dignity, in the sphere she is destined to occupy. She 
should be fitted to pour the beams of intelligence, and the 
brilliancy of all the mild and lovely virtues, upon the nurse- 
ries of young immortals. She should there be the sun, as it 
were, shedding vivifying influences upon the tender intel- 
lect, and generating, by means of those influences, every 
high-toned and manly sentiment and principle; and thus, in 
process of time, filling the world with those sentiments and 
principles. But can she effect all this, if she be ignorant 
and grovelling-minded? Can she elevate the intellectual 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 131 

standard of her children, unless her own standard of intellect 
be elevated ? No. To accomplish this, she must he educa- 
ted, and that education must be of a superior order, so that her 
influence over others may be of a superior order. She must 
study the more solid branches, such as Philosophy and Ma- 
thematics, as well as acquire the lighter accomplishments, 
such as music and painting. Then, if sterling morality and 
goodness of heart be conjoined vi^ith her leai*ning, w^oman is 
qualified to 

"Rear the tender thought, 

"And teach the young idea how to shoot;" 

is qualified to train and send forth from the discipline of the 
nursery, candidates to fill all the multiform stations in soci- 
ety, who shall, after a proper course ©f subsequent education, 
be prepared to fill those stations with usefulness, dignity, and 
honor. 

Having discussed, at some length, the propriety and im- 
portance of female education, as well as the propriety of 
their pursuing the same scientific course, as is marked out 
for the male department, let it be remarked, that those exer- 
cises which are intended for the relaxation of the mind and 
the preservation of health, should, in some particulars, be 
diflTercnt in the two instances. The Gymnasium should be 
the same, and the Botanic garden the same, but the Me- 
chanical department should be different. Instead of being 
fitted up with benches and tools for the various branches of 
mechanism, operated by the pupils of the Institution for 
males, it should be appropriated for a female workshop, 
and furnished with various kinds of spinning wheels, for spin- 
ning wool, flax, and tow; looms for cotton, linen, woolen, 
carpeting, lace, and stockings or hose; and apparatus for all 
kinds of similar manufactures, which require that species of 
exercise, which would preserve a healthful equilibrium be- 
tween the mental and physical natures, and in which females 
could engage, not only with pleasure, but with profit. The 
seasons for toil, and the order and routine of exercises, should 
be the same as recommended in the Mechanical Institute for 
males. In like manner also, should the products of the 



132 liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

pupils' labors be kept separately — be sold once a quarter at 
public or private sale, and their avails be appropriated to 
the liquidation of the expenses incurred by each pupil, in 
her Academic course. While contemplating this subject, 
and others connected with it, the propriety will appear abun- 
dantly evident, that the professors of the various depart- 
ments in this Institute should be women ; for who, but they, 
could superintend such a domestic manufacturing depart- 
ment, as we have been considering? And who, but they, 
could be properly qualified and suited to exercise that mater- 
nal supervision over the manners and morals of young ladies, 
and give that maternal advice, which is so absolutely neces- 
sary. The impression upon my mind is deeply engraven, 
that none but female professors should be appointed to fill 
the several professorships of the female Institute; and that 
they should have the sole management of that Institute, from 
the key-stone to the foundation, exclusive of any interfe- 
rence on the part of male supervisors or boards of trust. This 
impression has been imbibed and deepened, from the con- 
templation of the apparent fact, that none but females are, 
or can^from the very nature of things., be qualified to fill that 
important and peculiar sphere appropriately; and no man 
should, therefore, intrude upon that sphere, which nature 
and propriety have consecrated solely to the other sex. 

There exists another powerful reason, why this sphere 
should be consecrated to tliem exclusively. Whatever may 
be the genius, the talents, and the accomplishments of the 
female — though she may possess the powerful mind and 
acknowledged intellectual endowments of a Hannah Moore, 
and be mentally and morally qualified to shine in any sphere, 
in which she chose to move ; yet, nature, and therefore pro- 
priety, has forever thrown an insuperable barrier between 
her and the learned professions. She cannot plead at the 
bar. She cannot ascend the sacred desk, as the lawfully 
jcOiijmissioned legate of the skies. She cannot take her seat 
with ge^ators, in the halls of legislation, and there delibe- 
rate upon matters of national policy. All these avenues to 
wealth, influence, and honor, are forever closed against her. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 133 

But, there is one profession in which she may engage, with- 
out violating any principle of decorum — without "o'er- 
stepping," in any particular, "the modesty of nature." That 
is the profession of an instructor of females. Now, since 
she is thus insuperably debarred from all other professions, 
and since she can enter this with universal consent and ap- 
probation, and with the consciousness of perfect rectitude, 
it should, in justice, setting aside other weighty reasons, be 
exclusively consecrated to her. 

The theory broached in this Lecture, that pupils belong- 
ing to the Female Institute, should be engaged for two or 
three hours each day, in Manual Labor, is, I am aware, a 
novel theory, and maj, peradventure, be somewhat unpopu- 
lar with the ladies and belles of the present day. To their 
refined apprehensions of delicacy and mdelicacy, there may 
be something strikingly incongruous, in the contact of white 
hands and tapering fingers, with the wheel, the loom, or the 
distaff. To their acute discernment of harmonies, and to 
their musical taste, there may appear something discordant, 
between the sweet tones of the piano, and the rattling of 
the shuttle. But, such was not the case in the days of our 
grand-mothers. The buzz of the wheel, and the rattling of 
the loom, was sweeter music to them, than the most exquisite 
tones of the harp and the piano. There appears, then, to be 
a great diversity, between the taste of our grand-mothers and 
the taste of their grand-daughters of the present generation. 
Now, although society, speaking generally, is progressing in 
the onward march of improvement, yet 1 am inclined, in 
this particular, to harbor a preference for the taste of our 
grand-mothers. But, I should esteem it preferable, however, if 
the taste of our grand-mothers, for the music of the loom and 
the spinning wheel, could be reconciled and amalgamated 
with the taste of their grand-daughters, for tlie tones of the 
harp, and the piano. Then, a proposal to introduce Manual 
Labor into those institutions where young ladies are to be 
educated, might not be unpopular, but would be considered, 
l)y all, as a desideratum. And the time is soon coming, 
I doubt not, when by the powerful influence of regenerated 



134 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

systems of education, false standards of taste, and the des- 
potism of corrupt fashion, which have, in some cases, been 
created and fostered, by the introduction, into our country, 
of French and Itahan manners, with French and ItaUan 
opera singers, will be supplanted by correct and elevated 
standards of taste — when it shall be no longer considered, 
as it too frequently is, that it is disgraceful, for an elegant 
and accomplished young lady, to be seen employed in spin- 
ning, or weaving, or some other drudgery or menial office, 
connected with household affairs. I can imagine such a 
revolution of public sentiment, produced by the concurrence 
and operation of agents, even now at work, that young ladies, 
more accomplished than they now are, shall almost be proud 
that they are 7iot proud. When they shall not blush "crim- 
son red," if they happen, unexpectedly, to be surprised, by 
their consequential acquaintances, at the wash-tub, or the 
loom, or the spinning wheel. But when they shall delight, 
like Dorcas of old, or like some princesses of old, to exhibit 
specimens of domestic manufacture, the products of their 
own toil and handiwork. 

Finally, in the conclusion of our remarks respecting Insti- 
tutions for females, we may be called upon to remove some 
objections, and to answer some queries, which may arise in 
the mind of the reader, respecting the collocation of a suffi- 
cient number of pupils, at any given location, to fill all the 
departments of those two separate Institutions, the establish- 
ment of which, our theory has recommended; since, to fill 
all those departments, it would require two thousand and 
five hundred or three thousand pupils. "How can such a 
vast number be brought together conveniently ?'''' According 
to the legitimate operations of the plan already suggested, 
let it be answered. It will be recollected, by a reference 
to a pi'cvious Lecture, that full provision has been made for 
such a supposablc exigency. We advocated the establish- 
ment of institutions upon the foundation of the proposed 
model in the midst of the population of large cities, contain- 
ing ten or fifteen thousand inhabitants, and upwards — cities 
wherein those ten or fifteen thousand and upwards should 



tiECTURES ON EDUCATION. 135 

reside compactly. Now, in the midst of such a dense popu- 
lation, the two proposed institutions might be established, 
into which, from an inconsiderable distance around, might 
be collected together, the required complement of scholars, 
almost, if not quite as convenientlj, as they can now be 
collected into existing institutions; thus effectually remo- 
ving every objection and difficulty, which could possibly 
arise from this quarter. 

Having considered the subject of a Division of Labor 
among Teachers sufficiently, in all its bearings^ relations, 
and dependencies, v^dth reference to its application to the 
purposes of education, in densely populated cities, we now 
come to the consideration of the other proposed branch of 
our subject, and shall endeavor to show — 

II. Hoio the Division of Labor among Teachers can he effec- 
ted in sparsely populated country towns. My object, in thus 
considering the general subject of the third and fourth 
Lectures, in two distinct branches, is not for the purpose of 
advancing the theories of two systems, the one for the city, 
and the other for the country, dissimilar to each other in 
their general outlines. No. The model for the Academic, 
Boarding, Mechanical, and otlicr edifices, should be alike in 
both cases. The order of studies should be the same, from 
the Primary up to the Metaphysical department. The ap- 
paratus should be the same. But the dissimilar affinities, 
by which the public stand related to the two branches of the 
subject, and the dissimilar bearings which these two bran- 
ches must, necessarily, have upon them, seemed to require, 
that we should consider them separately. Of the perfect 
feasibility of the application to education, of the reforming 
principle, amidst a dense population, there cannot, seem- 
ingly, be a single doubt harbored in the mind of that man, 
who looks at the subject in the light of unbiased reason. It 
is perfectly consistent with the plain dictates of common 
sense. Its operation involves no inconvenience. And 
nothing is Avanting to effect its full and successful applica- 
tion, except conviction and effi^rt — a conviction of its vast 
importance and incalculable benefits, and a corresponding 



136 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

effort to carry it into operation, and thus to demonstrate its 
importance and secure its benefits. 

But when the expediency and practicability of the appli- 
cation of this reforming principle, or of any other reforming 
principle, or radical improvement, to the purposes of educa- 
tion, in sparsely populated country settlements, have been 
the subjects of consideration, it must be cordially confessed, 
that barriers and difficulties, in the way of applying that 
principle fully, or of effecting those radical improvements, 
have arisen before the mind, sometimes "mountain high." 
Those difficulties and barriers which arose before the mind, 
in such forbidding array, while contemplating the subject, 
were not, however, thrown there by an unalterable and 
irremediable fatality of consequences, resulting, necessarily, 
from ail uncontrollable fatality of causes or principles. Had 
any natural impossibilit}^ which exists in the inherent essence 
of things, been interposed in the way, as an insurmounta- 
ble obstacle, to prevent the accomplishment of radical im- 
provements, it could not, then, have been made a question, 
whether those improvements could have been effected. No. 
Theory on the subject of those improvements, would have 
been visionary. Effort would have been powerless. Coun- 
try schools must have, forever, remained unimproved. Their 
standard of excellence must have, forever, been stationary. 
But no such impossibility exists. There is no uncontrolla- 
ble fatality in the inherent nature of things, which, of neces- 
sity, binds country schools, as with ligaments of adamant, 
forever to their present condition. Any improvement, 
which exigency demands, might, with perfect ease and suc- 
cess, be effected, did the public but apprehend that exigency, 
which actually exists, and did they but divest their minds of 
all prejudice against novelties and innovations, which com- 
mend themselves to every ingenuous principle of common 
sense. Aye, here are those difficulties and harriers of which 
we spoke. "J/zc labor est.'''' Here, here is the Alpine pas- 
sage, which must be effected. Against the formidable 
genius of opposition, who guards the straits of Thermopylae, 
must be brought to bear, all the artillery of the press, and 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 137 

all the forces of argument and persuasion, before the oppo- 
ser shall be dislodged from his position, and quiet possession 
be taken of Greece. Or, to speak without a figure, the 
community, as a body, must be induced, if it be possible, to 
investigate some theory of improvement which may be 
offered for their consideration, calmly, dispassionately, and 
without a tincture of prejudice for any preconceived notions; 
and, having weighed that theory in the infallible balances of 
common sense, and determined its merit, if it be found by 
those balances, to possess sterling weight and value, that 
community should, if possible, be induced, heartily to co- 
operate in any plan, which would efficiently test that theory, 
and secure to the public its pi-actical benefits. 

The author has a theory to offer; — a theory, which he 
believes is appropriately calculated to correct efficiently, 
the erroneous school systems of the country. Others may 
not think as he does. If so, they will doubtless be willing, 
patiently, to investigate that theory. Such an investigation 
is all that the author can reasonably solicit. It is all he 
asks. If it stand not the test of investigation, it ought not 
to prevail, and it cannot prevail. Oblivion be to its mem- 
ory. Let it lie forever buried with that vast mass of unim- 
portant things, which have merely been, but are now for- 
gotten. But if it shall, peradventure, stand the most fiery 
ordeal of investigation and criticism — if it be calculated to 
benefit the public, immensely, by its practical operation — if 
in an institution, founded upon its principles, pupils can, in 
the same time, and at the same expense as now, or even 
less, acquire five or ten times the amount of actual, availa- 
ble knowledge — if, instead of producing intellectual parrots, 
it introduce the student into the very arcana of science, and 
make him a proficient in the inherent nature and essence of 
all scientific principles, so far as they are, or can be legiti- 
mate subjects of investigation — if, I say, all these should ap- 
pear to be the natural results of that theory, is it not evident, 
then, that it should be tested by practical experiment? Does 
not the welfare of the rising generation require it? Does 
not humanity require it? Does not patriotism require it? 
18 



138 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Upon the immutable principles of eternal right and wrong, 
have community any power of election, to choose or refuse, 
in the case at their pleasure ? Are they not bound, by the 
imperative demands of justice, not to withhold from posterity a 
benefit, which cannot but be acknowledged to be immense, 
and which they have the power to confer? There can be 
but one opinion upon this subject. All candid, enlightened, 
impartial men, would decide in the negative, even though 
their decisions should clash with their own prepossessions. 
Let us, then, to the investigation. 

Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, and Sisters, — all ye, who 
are scattered amidst the sparsely populated settlements of our 
country, and are deeply interested in the results of the 
pending question, come, and let us sit down together, in 
deep consultation, and, with the cool, deliberate, iinimpas- 
sioned calculation of a man who is about to build a tower, 
or, of a general who is about to meet the enemy, let us inves- 
tigate the proposed theory, by taking up the particulars, one 
by one, and determining with mathematical exactness, their 
practicability or their impracticability. Let us remember, 
throughout the whole examination, that consequences of no 
ordinary moment, hang upon our deliberations. And, if 
partiality for our own cherislied sentiments, or those of our 
fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, and a long line of 
ancestry, shall have the weight of a feather to bias our judg- 
ments erroneously, we are not fit to deliberate or to decide 
upon the destinies of posterity. No. And they might fairly 
bring against us, the black charge of being traitors to their 
cause and their interests, if we did thus deliberate and 
decide. 

Having premised these remarks, we will proceed to pro- 
pose and investigate the theorj', of a radical improvement 
for schools located in the countrj^, as we suppose the point 
conceded, that there are radical errors existing in those 
schools. An appropriate model has been already given for 
the necessary buildings. These should be Academic, Board- 
ing, Mechanical, and other edifices of the same dimensions, 
and according to the same architcctujal plan, as has been 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 139 

recommended for cities, with this exception — the Boarding 
edifice should be enlarged, sufficiently, to accommodate all, 
or nearly all of the pupils, who may belong to the Acade- 
mic department. 

Two Institutions, the one for males and the other for fe- 
males, constructed after the model recommended for institu- 
tions in cities, should be located at the county seat or shire 
town of each county throughout the State, and of each county, 
indeed, throughout the United States. All the children 
and youth, belonging to the several towns of each county, 
between the ages of six and eighteen years, should be col- 
lected together into those institutions, except they belong to 
cities within the boundaries of that county, which contain 
over ten thousand inhabitants. Some counties, located in 
new territories, and, in very sparsely populated settlements, 
might furnish fifteen hundred or two thousand pupils, exclu- 
sive of cities, which contain a number of pupils requisite for 
a separate institution. Having introduced the males and 
females of this number into their appropriate departments, 
each of those institutions would contain from two to four thou- 
sand pupils — a vast number for one school, but not too vast. 
Though some might at the firet glance consider the number 
so large, as to be particularly objectionable, for the reason, 
that so many could not be taught in the same institution con- 
veniently, yet, according to the legitimate operations of our 
theory, no such apprehended inconvenience would exist in 
reality. A necessity would only thereby be created, for an 
increase of boarding accommodations — an appropriation of 
two departments for each science instead of one, similarly 
constructed, and fitted up with similar furniture and appara- 
tus, and an addition of twelve professors to fill the twelve 
additional professorships. On almost all other accounts, 
such a large congregation of children and youth would rather 
be a desideratum than otlierwise, because it would enable 
the public more fully to test the benefits of a Division of La- 
bor among Teachers, and because the tendency of an in- 
crease of pupils would be a decrease of the expenses of each. 



140 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

pupil a trifle per week, which, when all aggregated, would 
amount to hundreds of dollars per annum. 

Under the entire control and sole guardianship of the pro- 
fessors of those institutions, should the pupils be placed, as 
inmates and members of the great Academic family; and 
each one should be placed under the particular charge and 
supervision of the professor of his particular department; be- 
cause he would then be under the eye of his guardian, both 
during the hours of study, of work, and of recreation and 
repose. This is recommended upon the presumption, that 
those professors who shall thus be delegated to fill the station 
and do the offices of a natural protector, guardian, and coun- 
sellor, will be endowed with every appropriate qualification 
for that important sphere — that they will possess that weight 
and dignity, and elevation of intellectual, and that purity of 
moral character, which shall entitle them to the fullest confi- 
dence of every father and mother in the community — that 
they will be faithful in exercising a strict parental supervision 
over the manners and habits of youth committed to their 
charge. If such should be their qualifications, and such 
their fidelity in the execution of their important trusts, pa- 
rents could surely not hesitate to make them guardians of 
their offspring, and devolve upon them almost the entire re- 
sponsibility of giving to the infant and expanding and ma- 
turing thoughts their proper bias, and of "training up those 
children in the way they should go." And did he thus com- 
mit his offspring to the care of those professors, for the devel- 
opment of their physical, mental, and moral powers; they 
would, I doubt not, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, 
be better trained and better disciplined for the high stations 
and duties of life, than they would were they under the par- 
tial supervision of their parents, during the term of their pu- 
pilage. We draw this inference from the fact, that parental 
affection often partially bHnds people to the faults and follies 
of their offspring, as well as from the fact, that parents 
are often too busily engaged in discharging the multiform 
duties of active hfe, to exercise tliat vigilant supervision 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 141 

over the manners and morals and intellectual culture of their 
children, which ought to be exercised, and which would be 
exercised by a person qualified and consecrated, like a pro- 
fessor, for that particular vocation. 

With the Male department of the county institute, there 
should, besides the Mechanical department, the Botanic gar- 
den and the Gymnasium, be connected for the further educa- 
tion and development of the physical powers of the pupil, a 
large farm, containing one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
acres of cleared land, and as much as one hundred acres of 
woodland for the supply of the institution with fuel. This 
farm should, so far as possible, be cultivated and kept in or- 
der by the pupils, under the direction of their instructors. It 
should be appropriately divided by good and substantial fen- 
ces, into lots for tillage, mowing, and pasturage. The lots for 
cultivation should be planted with corn and potatoes, or be 
sowed with rye and wheat, according to their peculiar adapt- 
edness to the production of those different grains; and, during 
the summer and autumn, the produce of those lots should be 
gathered together, into the granaries of the institution, for 
the use of the Academic family. The grass of the mowing 
lots should be cut in season, and made into hay by the stu- 
dents, and be either secured in stacks or else carted into 
barns constructed for the purpose, and belonging to the in- 
stitution. Into the divisions for pasturage, the horses and 
working cattle which are required to perform the agricultu- 
ral operations of the farm, should be turned to graze, during 
the summer, as well as several cows, intended to supply the 
Academic families with plenty of milk, cheese, and butter; 
and these cattle, during the winter, should be stabled in the 
barns belonging to the establishment, and fed with the hay, 
oats, straw, and other similar productions, yielded by the 
mowing and tillage lots of the farm. 

This connection of agricultural and mechanical opera- 
tions with the institution, would be productive of a threefold 
benefit to the students. The growth and strength of their 
physical natures, as well as the preservation of their health, 
would thereby be promoted. The various productions, deri- 



142 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ved from the cultivation of the farm, if consumed in the Aca- 
demic families, and the various articles of manufacture pro- 
duced in the mechanical workshops of the establishment, if 
exchanged for flour, meat, or other necessaries, would les- 
sen, very materially, the expenses which must otherwise be 
increased by purchasing provisions for the Boarding depart- 
ment. And students would be fitted, while acquiring their 
education, to engage with success in performing the business 
of agriculture, or be qualified to labor, as skillful workmen, 
in various departments of the mechanical arts, so soon as 
they should graduate from the institution. 

Against this system of county schools, several objections 
have been urged, and we therefore infer, that objections will 
still be urged against it. This we expect as a natural con- 
sequence. To a certain extent, this carefulness and incre- 
dulity, about the reception and approbation of novel theo- 
ries, without having first examined them thoroughly, is com- 
mendable. For, when innovations are made upon customs, 
and practices, and institutions, which are as old, almost, as 
the gray hills — when systems are broached which have no 
counterpart nor parallel in all analogy — it is midoubtedly 
proper, that men should pause, and examine, and reflect, 
before they approbate. It is undoubtedly proper, that they 
should propose to the theorist, such objections and queries 
as shall occur to their minds, and such as they cannot satis- 
factorily solve. To this, the theorist can make no reasona- 
ble exceptions, provided that those objections and queries 
shall not be prompted by the spirit of cavilling, but will an- 
swer them without hesitation. 

To the theory proposed for institutions, intended for 
spai-scly populated settlements, objections have been urged 
by intelligent and observing men. They were prompted, 
no doubt, by a desire to have all difficulties cleared out of the 
way, and as much light thrown upon the subject as possible. 
Those objections we will endecivor to state fairly and can- 
didly, and then attempt, by logical argument, to demonstrate, 
if possible, that they exist, more in imagination, than in 
reality. All that is requested of the objector, is, that he 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 



143 



would dismiss from his mind, every unreasonable prejudice, 
and sit down, upon amicable terms, with the theorist, and 
listen coolly and dispassionately, to his answers, and to his 
arguments. And, I doubt not, but that the objector will be 
disposed thus to sit down, and give the theorist an attentive 
hearing. This inference is drawn from the liberal and en- 
lightened spirit of the age. I shall proceed, then, to state 
and to answer — 

Objection I. "// is impossible, that all the children and 
youth, belonging to sparsely populated settlements, should be col- 
lected together into institutions, located centrally, at the shire 
towns of their respective counties, because parents will not be 
zcilling to resign their children to the guardianship of the profes- 
sors in that inslitulion.^'' Parents, it is true, feel a deep inter- 
est in the welfare of their offspring ; the mother especially, 
feels this solicitude. She clings fondly to her darling, and, 
with almost unyielding reluctance, is she ever persuaded to 
give her consent tliat he shall depart from the home of his 
nativity, where he has grown up beneath her eye, and been 
the fond subject of her fostering care. To her bosom, it is 
trying — it is painful, to send him forth into the wide world, 
to encounter hardships, she knows not how severe, and to 
experience vicissitudes and casualties, she knows not how 
unfortunate. It is difficult, by any persuasion, to reconcile 
her mind to the idea of intrusting him to the guardianship 
of One, who can never feel toward him, the affection of a 
mother. This is nature. Such feelings are sacred. Thej 
gusli up from the deep fountains of the soul. They are not 
only right, but they are commendable. The mother, who 
possesses them not, is an anomaly in God's creation. Yet, 
although it is natural, that she should cling thus to her child, 
with a tenacity but ill-disposed to relax its grasp, expediency 
has often triumphed over nature, even in the fondest mothers 
bosom. If it has appeared to be for the benefit of the dar- 
ling, many a time has she consented, that he should leave 
<'his dear native bowers," and that he should be apprenti- 
ced, for years, to a master in some distant town, or county, or 
state, in order that hemight learn some mechanic art, or 



144 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

qualify him to fill the office and perform the duties of a clerk^ 
in a trading establishment. Or, if it promised fair to sub- 
serve his best interests, she has even consented that he 
should embark upon the tumultuous vv^aters of the ocean, 
although she was, at the same time, well aware, that, as 
often as the fearful storm of midnight should howl around 
her casement, sleep would forsake her eyelids, and her fond 
spirit follow the wake of the vessel, and hover over its deck; 
that she should, in imagination, hear the deep-toned thunder 
roll over the tremendous swellings of the ocean; that she 
should sec the vivid lightning flash aci'oss the foaming wa- 
ters; that she should hear the winds bellow furiously around 
the cracking cordage, and see the wrathful spirit of the storm, 
twist his wizard-fingers into the flaxen hair of her son , and 
hurl him into the wave, as it rolled, mountain-high, against 
the deck of the reeling vessel. All these fearful scenes of 
storm and shipwi'cck, she was well aware, would, occasionally, 
haunt her imagination, and press down her spirits like the 
nightmare. Yet, she consented that he should thus encoun- 
ter the perils of the ocean, for some supposable good, which 
he might thereby derive. 

If parents, then, for such a supposable benefit, can con- 
sent to forego the gratification of their own yearning affec- 
tions — if the fond mother can give up her darling to engage 
in enterprises so full of hazard and peril, and so far from 
home, for the consideration of some anticipated and uncer- 
tain good, derivable from those enterprises — could any parent 
object, — could the fondest mother object to send her dearest, 
loveliest, most idolized child, a few miles only from the home 
of his nativity, prompted to do so by very mighty conside- 
rations, and a certain and invaluable benefit? Would she 
not consent to his absence, when that absence would be but 
a few short months, at a time, instead of years? Where he 
would not have to work intensely, ten or twelve hours per 
day, in serving an apprenticeship at some one of the mecha- 
nic arts, but would be admitted into an institution, where 
the mental and physical powers of the youth are exercised 
in such nice proportions as shall make both exercises agreea- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. I45 

ble, and conducive to the health and vigor of both body and 
mind; where that knowledge is gained, which is pozuer, and 
those arts arc acquired, which will qualify the person acqui- 
ring them, for almost any station; where the governmental 
influence and restraint, exercised over his boyish propensi- 
ties, is parental and tender, as well as firm and decisive; 
where he can spend, during the term of his pupilage, the 
happiest hours of his existence, in company with a numerous 
class of associates, of the same age, either in the pursuits of 
the Academic and Mechanical departments, or in the sports 
of the Gymnasium, or in the repose enjoyed in the still 
retreats of Academic bowers, from which he can return, 
once a quarter, to the bosom and fond endearments of 
"home, sweet home," rendered trebly sweet by absence, and 
there spend the term of his vacation? Could any parent, I 
say, could any parent hesitate to send his child to an insti- 
tution of this character — to the enjoyment of all those pri- 
vileges, advantages, and pleasures? Surely not. We infer 
this from the general principles of expediency and inter- 
est and forethought upon which most parents act. 

Objection 2. ^'' Since the theory for county institutions pro- 
poses, that all the youth shall be introduced into those institu- 
tions, at the age of eight years, and there continue until they are 
eighteen, before they are permitted to graduate, an insuperable 
harrier zoill be opposed to that theory, by the refusal of parents 
to spare their children so long from the labors of the farm, or 
of some particular trade.'''' — If it be admitted, however, that 
parents desire to promote, by every laudable and possible 
means, the highest good of their children, then, there are 
strong reasons to doubt the validity of this objection. For, if 
the parent thus ardently seeks the welfare of his offspring, 
he will not, by any means, suffer two or three years of unim- 
portant and almost profitless labor, to be thrown into the 
scale, and weigh against the invaluable benefit of such a 
mental discipline and scientific course, as the theory under 
consideration proposes, and the benefits of which, every en- 
lightened parent will not hesitate to acknowledge. Besides, 
if we examine this objection more narrowly, we shall be still 
19 



146 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

further convinced of its invalidity. For, if the whole term 
of the scholar's pupilage be taken into consideration, it 
would admit of a query, whether the parent would not, even 
in a pecuniary point of view, be the gainer, by foregoing, 
voluntarily, the avails of the pupil's labor, on his farm, and 
sending him to the county institution, where he could be 
under the constant supervision of a qualified professor, and 
where he might, perhaps, earn as much, toward defraying 
the expenses of his livelihood, by working three hours regu- 
larly and industriously, every day, from one end of the year 
to the other, excepting holidays, Sundays, and vacations, as 
he could, were he engaged, as irregularly, in some occupa- 
tion for his parents, as most children and youth are, from 
eight to eighteen. For, during those ten years, a very con- 
siderable proportion of young people's time is wasted in boy- 
ish trifling, and sometimes in worse than boyish trifling, which 
can neither avail themselves nor their parents any thing. 
Indeed, the first six or seven years of the ten would, izi- most 
cases, create a bill of expense, against the parent, for food, 
clothing, and tuition, over and above his receipts from the 
child's labor, during the same period, which could not possi- 
bly be liquidated by the young man, during the other three 
years, though he should labor most intensely. If, therefore, 
we take every thing connected with the subject, into con- 
sideration — the regularity of the pupil's habits and labors, 
while a member of the institution, and their irregularity, 
while under the supervision of his parents — we cannot, I 
think, but draw the logical conclusion, that even, so far as 
mere pecuniary interest is concerned, it would be better, that 
the parent should place his child in the county institution; 
for, it would not be so expensive to maintain him there, as 
it would at home, provided he should avail himself of the 
child's labor in both instances. 

But, waiving all considerations of pecuniary policy — 
supposing that it zvould cost much more to maintain the pupil, 
at such an institution, than it would at home, yet, so long as 
the benefits, derivable to the child, from such a course of 
physical; mental, and moral discipline, cannot but be ac- 



LECTURES ON EDUCVTION. 147 

knowledged to be invaluable; no parent, who loves his of!^ 
spring, and has the ability, would hesitate a moment, to 
secure the greater benefit; — and, if he has not the ability, 
but the disposition only, we shall propose a plan, by the 
practical operation of which, he shall be enabled to gratify 
that disposition. 

Objection 3. " There is no propriety in educating the com- 
mon people so liberally^ as the theory for county institutions pro- 
poses. Ofivhat consequence can it be to the farmer, in the culti- 
vation of his fields, or to the mechanic, in the business of his 
workshop, if he study the classics and the abstruse sciences; or, 
if he learn any thing more than to read, write, keep accounts 
correctly, and understand the general outlines of Geography.'''' — 
Such an objection as this, could never, I am sure, have ema- 
nated from an intelligent source. It bears, on its very front, 
the impress of grovelling-mindedness. Its purblind vision 
surveys but an inch or two of space. It looks not abroad 
over society, neither does it take in comprehensive views of 
human duties, relationships, and dependencies. It assumes 
the position, that all knowledge, beyond a mere sufficiency 
to qualify a person for the particular sphere which he occu- 
pies, is superfluous. Such a sentiment makes man a mere 
insulated being — places him upon the lonely pedestal of his 
own independence, where he exerts no influence upon others, 
and feels no sympathies for all the world beside; neither 
is influenced or moved by any thing extraneous. Is man 
such a being? Docs he — can he, in reality, thus stand upon 
the lonely pedestal of his own solitary, uninfluenced, and 
uninfluencing independence? No. We are social beings.. 
We exert an influence upon each other, for good or for ill", 
which is unceasing in its operations. We could not avoid 
exerting that influence, miless we should hide in the dar- 
kest desert on the globe, whose soil was never imprinted 
by the footsteps of human beings. If this, then, be the actual 
condition of our race, it is evident, that man, while enga- 
ged in a preparation for the duties of life, should not have 
reference to a "qualification merely to perform the business 
of his individual railing, but to that influence also, which 



148 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

he is destined to exert, either for good or for ill, upon society 
around him. It is true, that a man might be qualified 
for the simple business of the farm, or the workshop, by 
learning the mere rudiments of reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, or even without learning those rudiments. But these 
comprise not the sum total of his duties. He stands rela- 
ted to his family — to his kindred — to his neighbors — to his 
country — to the world — to things present — to things future. 
With all these relationships, peculiar and imperative 
duties are connected — duties, from whose adamantine obli- 
gations, he cannot escape, if he would. In making up 
the mass of the body politic, he is, it is true, nothing more 
than a unit. But is not an unit an important figure in the 
computation of quantities, be they large or small? Are 
not hundreds and thousands and millions made up of units? 
Are not all the grains of sand upon the sea shore, and 
all the particles, which compose the globe, made up of 
units? An unit^ then, whether it make any component 
part of the body politic, or be an individual grain of 
any substance whatever, is not an xuiimjiortant Jigure. 

Let no man, therefore assert, that, because he is a mere unit, 
his influence is unimportant, when it may, in certain circum- 
stances, go far towards wielding the destinies of a nation, 
and may tell brightly or darkly on the happiness or misery of 
millions. Can a man, then, who is thus important on the 
scale of society, be qualified to discharge commendably the 
duties of his various relationships to other men and other 
things, by learning in a common district school, merely the 
rudiments of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, even 
though he be the obscurest farmer or mechanic in all the 
community? Can a citizen of republican America, be quali- 
fied by such an education, to sustain respectably the weighty 
responsibilities attached to his citizenship? A^ever — never. 
Poorly calculated would such a man be, to detect the arts of 
political Cffisars. Poorly qualified would he be, to discern 
between honesty and dishonesty, competency and incompe- 
tency, in candidates for important oflices; and by his suffra- 
ges, to delegate the power of the people in all cases, wiseli^,. 



LTiOTUUKS ON EDUCATION". 149 

To become endowed with all that prudence, discernment, 
foresight, and wisdom, which is necessary in order to consti- 
tute a man such a component part of the sovereignty of this 
great republic, as shall insure, so far as his influence extends, 
a wholesome, well administered government, he should not be 
grudgingly educated — he should be well educated — educated 
as well as our theory proposes. And if it be proper and neces- 
sary, that one member of the community should have his 
mental powers thus cultivated, the minds of all should be 
thus cultivated. For every single individual in community 
constitutes one component part of the governing influence 
which is exerted over this great republic. Oblivion then to 
the sentiment, that the common people should not be libe- 
rally educated. It is a doctrine abhorrent to every princi- 
ple of republicanism — of humanity — of patriotism — of jus- 
tice. It occupies the same conspicuous position in the po- 
litical creed of the monarchist, as did that famous motto — 
''''Ignorance is the mother of Devotion^'' in the religious creed of 
the Papist. Yes — '■'•Ignorance is the mother of Liberty," is 
the plain and unequivocal language which it talks. Let no 
professed republican object, then, to the liberal education of 
the mass of the people; for, if he does, we shall consider 
that he is a traitor to that cause, which he pretends to es- 
pouse, and that he is at heart a monarchist. 

Objection 4. ^^ Local prejudices and preferences will be irre- 
concilably opposed to the location of institutions at the shire tozvns 
of counties, or at any other central and proper location. Imagining 
that peculiar benefits must be derivable from the vicinity of such 
an institution, the inhabitants of all the different sections and towns 
of the county, will desire that it may be located in their immediate 
neighborhood. And these local prejudices and preferences must 
not only produce contention, but must make it forever impossible 
thai a county institution should be founded.'''' — Judging, however, 
from analogy, I anticipate, that those local prejudices and 
preferences will not operate so deleteriously, nor present 
such insuperable barriers to improvement in schools, as the 
objector seems to imagine. For we have an analogous 
case, which will serve to defend the position we have assu- 



150 I,ECTUUES OX EDUCATION. 

med. In the progress of human society, dishonesty and 
crime became so prevalent, and knaves and criminals multi- 
plied to such an extent, that it became necessary not only to 
erect, for the defence and good order of society, supreme tri- 
bunals of judicature, located at the seat of general govern- 
ment, and at the metropolis of states, but to divide those 
states into small districts, called counties, each county com- 
prising several towns, and to erect courts of justice at some 
convenient central town of those counties, which town should 
be designated by the suffrages of the inhabitants. There, 
then, w^e have a plain case, and one decidedly apposite to 
our purpose. The welfare of society required that courts 
of justice should be established in each county. Conve- 
nience required that they should be located at some spot, 
where the mass of the inhabitants would be best accommo- 
dated. That spot must be designated by the votes of that 
county. They accordingly assemble at the polls, and give 
in their suffrages. Does each one in this case vote for his 
own town? No. He waives all local prejudices and pre- 
ferences, for the general good. A spot is designated, in most 
instances, without contention or opposition — a spot, all 
things considered, most convenient and eligible. Now, 
w^hat is the fair inference, which we may draw from' this 
fact of analogj? Why, that no such opposition from local 
prejudices and preferences, will be made to the location of 
an institution at the shire town of the county, as is appre- 
hended by the objector. The general good in this case, 
as well as the other, confessedly requires that such an insti- 
tution should be founded. The institution will, in this case, 
be the safeguard of our liberties and our political existence, 
as a court of justice is in the other case, the safeguard of oar 
commercial rights, of our property, and of our lives. Men 
will, therefore, waive all interested considerations, and with- 
out violent opposition, designate by their suffrages, as in the 
former case, some spot for the institution, where the mass 
of the inhabitants can best be accommodated. 




LECTURE V. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACHERS. 

Having attempted in a former Lecture, to remove out of 
the way certain hindrances to the establishment of coun- 
ty schools, upon the foundation of the improved model, 
which our theory offers, and endeavored to answer certain 
objections which have arisen against the system, in the 
minds of some individuals, we shall now proceed to state 
and to answer some objections against the radical principles 
of the zvhole theory. 

Objection L "./^ Division of Labor among Teachers can- 
not be effected^ because the expense which must necessarily be in- 
curred, must be so enormous that the public cannot and will not 
sustain the burden of that expense.'''' — There may be weight 
and truth in this objection. If so, our theory falls to the 
ground like a baseless fabric, or dissipates like an air-built 
castle of fancy. Perhaps, however, the objector may have 
examined the subject superficially. He may, in consequence, 
have been mistaken. Let us, therefore, with deliberate and 
unprejudiced coolness, take up the causes which would 
seemingly produce such effects, examine their nature and 
tendency in the light of a full and impartial investigation, 
survey the whole ground of their objection, inch by inch, 
and see whether the effects resulting from those causes are 
as deleterious as they may appear at a first glance. 

The edifices for the Academic, Boarding, and Mechanical 
departments of the proposed Institution, whose establish- 
ment our theory advocates, would probably cost about 
twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars, perhaps forty thou- 
sand. Now, in order to ascertain as nearly as possible, the 
probable difference between the expense incurred in pre- 
paring accommodations for pupils, according to the two sjs- 



I 



152 LECTURES ON EUUCATiON. 

terns, the new and the old, let us estimate the probable cost 
b/ Colleges, Academies, and of those common district school 
houses, which are at present scattered here and there, over 
the whole country, the necessity of whose erection and en- 
dowment would be superseded by the proposed arrange- 
ment of schools. The average expense of those Colleges, 
Academies, and School houses, regarding them as a whole 
throughout the country, could not be less, certainly, than 
four hundred dollars. Now, let us suppose, by making an 
average of the whole United States, that there are twelve 
towns in each Count}', and twelve school houses in each 
town, including, in the average all Academies and Colle- 
ges. The whole number, then, of school houses in the 
county would, according to this computation, be one hun* 
dred and forty- four, and their average cost would, at four 
hundred dollars each, be fifty-seven thousand and six hundred 
dollars. What becomes, then of the objection, which we 
have stated at the head of these remarks and attempted to 
answer? It seems, by close investigation, that it has actually 
no ground whatever to stand upon, and being unsupported, 
must, like a baseless fabric, tumble into ruins, and return 
to oblivion. For, if the proposed edifices for county institu- 
tions, shall cost but twenty-five, thirty, or even forty thou- 
sand dollars, which would probably be the very extent of 
the expense which would be incurred in erecting them, 
then, the surplus of seventeen thousand, six hundred dollars 
by which the fifty-seven thousand and six hundred, the ave- 
rage cost of erecting and endowing school houses. Acade- 
mies and Colleges upon the present system, exceeds the forty 
thousand dollars, the estimated cost of the proposed edifices 
for county institutions; then, I say, the surplus of the seven- 
teen thousand and six hundred dollars, by which the expense 
of the old system exceeds the cost of the new, would be a 
net gain. "But then. School houses, Academies, and Colle- 
ges are already erected. The expense is already incurred; 
and, if they should now be vacated, the expense incurred 
in erecting them, would be thrown away." — It is granted 
that such expenses have been incurred. But what then? 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 153 

Does it follow as a matter of course, that these expenses 
must, therefore, be thrown away, and community experience 
a dead loss? No such inference can be drawn logically 
from the premises. All those School houses. Academies, and 
Colleges could either be sold, and the avails of them be devo^ 
ted to the erection of edifices for county institutions; or else 
they could be altered into dwelling houses, stores, or houses 
of public entertainment, be rented, and the avails of that 
be applied to the payment of the interest, for the loan of 
the forty thousand dollars which would be necessary to erect 
the new edifices. 

Besides, in the course of ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty 
years, all those old edifices must be rebuilt, and, if the time 
of rebuilding were anticipated a short period, as our theory 
proposes, all the difference, which that anticipation of the 
time of rebuilding would make, would be merely the interr 
est of the money. 

Finally, we think the conclusion is justified upon a 
review of this subject, that forty thousand dollars would go 
as far, in erecting edifices appropriate to the proposed theory, 
as fifty-seven thousand and six hundred would, in erecting and 
endowing Colleges, Academies, and little petty school hou- 
ses all over our country, 

Objbotioij 2. "^ Division of Labor among Teachers cannot 
he effected., because the salaries qf the thirteen professors belong- 
ing to each scientific establishment, must be so much larger, in 
such an institution as our theory proposes, than the salaries of 
teachers now are, and necessarily so much beyond the amount of 
receipts for tuition, that the public will utterly refuse to co-operate 
in such apian.'''' — But let us examine the grounds of this ob- 
jection, if, indeed, it have any ground whereon to stand, 
and, if it should peradventure prove to be as utterly base- 
less as the former, there cannot be a reasonable apprehen- 
sion entertained, but that a candid, libei-al, and enlightened 
public will heartily co-operate in effecting the proposed im- 
provements. Let as, then, to the investigation, and deter- 
mine with as much mathematical precision as possible, the 
validity or rnvalidity of the objection upon which we are re- 
3() 



154 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

marking. According to tlie supposition upon wliich we 
founded oxir estimates, under the head of a former objection, 
there were, upon an average, twelve towns in each county, 
and twelve school houses in each town, making in all, one 
hundred and forty-four school houses. Now, if we suppose 
that to fill the office of teacher, in those one hundred and forty- 
four school houses, including Academies and Colleges, there 
should be, at the least calculation, one hundred and iifty 
teachers engaged — and if we suppose further, that those one 
hundred and fifty persons, including principals and assistants 
of Academies, and presidents, professors, and tutors of Colle- 
ges, are engaged in teaching, upon an average, six months 
in a year, at an average salary of twenty dollars per month 
including board — then, according to this supposition, each 
teacher would receive one hundred and twenty dollars for 
six months; which number, being multiplied into one hun- 
dred and fifty, the number of teachers employed, will give 
a product of eighteen thousand dollars, which sum, I think, 
must rather fall below, than rise above the amount which is 
annually expended, in defraying the salaries of every one 
hundred and fifty teachers. Let us suppose that each tea- 
cher instructs thirty-five pupils. Then, the one hundred 
and fifty teachers employed in each county, will instruct in 
all, five thousand two hundred and fifty scholars, and receive 
annually one hundred and twenty dollars apiece for their 
services, or eighteen thousand dollars in the aggregate. 
Now, in the institution, founded upon the plan whicli our 
theory proposes, there are twelve departments in the divi- 
sion of labor, in each of which a single professor is employ- 
ed, besides tlic master of music. Of course, in the two insti- 
tutions for males and females, twenty-six professors would be 
employed, twenty-four of which would fill the twenty-four Ac- 
ademic departments, in each of which departments one hun-. 
dred and fifty pupils could be educated by each professor 
more efficiently, than thirty-five scliolars by one teacher 
upon the present plan, as has been fully shown in a former 
Lecture. According to tliis computation, the whole aggre- 
gate number of pupils educated in the two institutions, would 



LECTURES ON EDUCATIOX. 155 

then amount to three thousand and six hundred. By increa- 
sing the departments to thirty-six, instead of twenty-four, 
then, somewhat more than the five thousand two hundred 
and fifty pupils, taught by the one hundred and fifty tea- 
chers, which are at present employed in the supposed one 
hundred and forty-four schools of the county, could be in- 
structed by thirtj'-ninc professors. Now, let the eighteen 
thousand dollars, which, according to our supposition, is ex- 
pended in paying the salaries of the one hundred and fifty 
teachers, Avhich belong to the county, for six months' service, 
at twenty dollars per month, be divided among the thirty- 
nine professors. Of that sum, each professor would, by 
such an appropriation, receive four hundred and sixty-one 
dollars and fifty-five cents per annum, or thirty-eight dollars 
and forty-six cents per month, provided that it be appropria- 
ted for twelve months' sei-vicc; or seventy-six dollars and 
ninety-two cents, provided, that it be appropriated, as 
in a former case, for six months' service. We come, 
then, by our deductions, to these conclusions — that thirty- 
nine persons can, upon the principle of a Division of Labor 
among Teachers, according to the proposed model, perform 
the duties of one hundred and fifty persons, who do not in 
their operations act upon that principle; thus leaving one 
hundred and eleven persons, of tbo one hundred and fifty, 
disengaged from their employment of school teaching, and 
actually saving to the community the labor of those one bun* 
dred and eleven persons, in some other occupation; — that 
the tliirty nine professors, for performing the same labor of 
one hundred and fifty, in the same time, will, if they shall 
have a similar compensation for discharging similar duties, 
receive sevent3--six dollars per month instead of twenty, or 
more than three times as liberal remuneration for their ser- 
vices; — and that the work will, at tlie same time, be per-' 
formed ten — yea, twenty-fold better. Against which sys- 
tem, then, I would ask, in the name of common sense, should 
the objection which we have been considering, be urged? 
Against the ncrv system or the old? Upon this subject there 
can be but oiv opinion among all honest, intelligent, candid 



156 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

men. It is as plainly manifest as mathematical demonstration 
can make it, that, the system of education which our theory 
inculcates, is not only cheaper by far, but that it accom- 
plishes the object which it proposes to accomplish, in a style 
far more efficient and workmanlike. 

Setting aside, however, the objection of which we have 
fully disposed, we would in this place, remark, that, if 
each of those five thousand two hundred and fifty pupils 
which would, according to previous computation, be collect-' 
ed together into thf^ rounty institute, should be required to 
pay only one dollar and fifty cents per quarter for tuition, or* 
six dollars per annum, then the yearly receipts of the Aca- 
demic treasury, for tuition merely, imparted by thirty-nine 
professors, would amount to thirty-one thousand and five 
hundred dollars, thirty thousand of which, if apportioned 
among the thirty-nine professors, each professor would have 
a dividend of seven hundred and sixty-nine dollars and 
twenty-three cents, besides leaving one thousand and five 
hundred dollars to be appropriated for necessary repairs and 
contingent expenses. 

Objection 3. " The expenses of boarding all pupils, from 
the age of eight to eighteen years, in the county institute, and the 
expense of clothing those pupils during that period, must he so 
enormous, that no parent possessed of an ordinary competence 
could have the ability to sustain it, even though he had the disposi- 
tion.'^'' — This objection appears the most plausible, and carries 
with it the greatest weight, of any whicli has been offered. It 
demands a serious investigation ; and if it shall be found to pre^ 
sent an insuperable barrier to the operations of our theory, we 
ought certainly to relinquish that theory. We will, then, 
institute an inquiry into the actual condition of this matter. 
We will, from a schedule of the obvious items of account^ 
which stand recorded, either in favor of this system, or in 
opposition, copy a sheet of debt and credit, strike balance, 
and thus determine whether that balance shall justify the 
premises we have assumed, and the conclusions we have 
drawn; or whether it shall militate against those premises 
and conclusions, and, if so, with how great a force. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 157 

In order to make the expenses of such a boarding estab- 
lishment as cheap as possible, the provisions should, in the 
first place, be wholesome but plain. In the supplies for the 
table, vegetable food should preponderate over animal food. 
Meat should be used, but used very sparingly. Rice, com- 
mon pudding, bread, milk, and butter, should constitute the 
chief articles of diet. Rich and costly cakes, preserves, and 
all highly seasoned food, should, without ceremony, and for- 
ever, be excluded from the table, as they "not only create an 
fexpense which is unjustifiable, but are often so cooked, as 
to become pernicious poisons, which destroy the healthful 
condition of the stomach, promote indigestion, and induce 
pulmonary complaints in persons of sedentary habits. The 
plainest diet, therefore, is the most conducive to health, to 
the buoyancy of the spirits, and to the invigoration of the 
physical powers. 

Again — Particular care should be taken, that a rigid econ- 
omy should be the order of the kitchen, of the pantry, and of 
the table. JVothing should be wasted. For, in such an im* 
mense establishment, a want of economy and prudential 
calculation, in the preparation of provisions for the table, 
Would be productive of a loss of some hundreds, and even 
thousands of dollars every year. To manage the affairs of 
the kitchen, prudentially, an experienced and faithful house- 
wife should be procured for each establishment, who should 
have the sole authority to deal out the stores, and superin- 
tend the cookery, and whose duty it should be, once a quar- 
ter, to submit, to an appropriate person, to be hereafter desig-- 
nated, an account of her stewardship. Under her, should 
be employed, at the expense of the instilxition, a sufficient 
number of persons to cook, wash, and to perform various 
other household duties. With a little assistance, to do the 
drudgery, the wives and families of the professors, if they had 
any, might, perhaps, perform most of the household duties, 
and thus lessen, very materially, the expenses of the estab- 
lishment. 

In the female institution, most of the labor of washing, 
cooking, and keeping the dormitories in order, should be 



158 Lr.CTl^RES ON rbXJC'ATid?*. 

performed by the pupils themselves, under the superinten- 
dence and direction of the twelve preceptresses of the 
twelve departments. By so doing, they would not only les- 
sen expense, hut acquire the theory of good and prudent 
housewifery, which might he of essential service in after 
life, in enal)ling tliem to manage their on-n houses ri-dL 

Again — Proceeding upon the scale of economy, cloth, for 
the wearing apparel of the pupils, sliould he bought in 
wholesale quantities, and at wholesale prices. Tins cloth 
should he plain, and the apparel made of it, should be simi- 
lar for each scliolar, belonging to tlic same institution; so 
that there should be no distinctions nor jealousies, created 
bv rudloR, and rihins, and fine coats. And not only to pre- 
vent sucii consequences, but for ornament, would I advocate 
auniformit}' of dress throughout the school; for, it must be 
an interesting and splendid sight, to see fifteen hundred 
or two thousand pupils all congregated together, and all 
dressed alike. 

A tailor should be employed for the males, and a milliner 
and mantua-malcer for the females, whose business it should 
be, to cut the suits and dresses for tlie pupils. When those 
suits and dresses are cut, they should all be made by the 
members of the female institute, at a certain price for each 
piece or garment; which, sum, so earned. should be placed to 
the account of her wlio earned it. In like manner, also, 
should stockings and mittens be knit, shirts ])e made, ct cet- 
era, for the males, by the members of tlie other institute, and 
be accrediled to their account. 

By such a process, it seems to me. that children belonging 
to tlie sclioo], migiit be clothed cheaper than their parents 
could pos-il)lv clothe them, if they remained under parental 
guardianship, at home, and depcndod on them to procure 
materials, and make the necessary apparel: for. in this case, 
cloLli is procured bv the insLilulion. in v»'holesale quantities, 
and at wholesale prices, and must be cheaper, than the parent 
can possibly get il for cash, whore he procure^ but a small 
quanlUy a( a limn. 



LECTUUES 0.\ EDUCATION. 159 

Again — To aid in furnishin|^, so far as possible, tlie grana- 
ries, larders, and pantries of the cslablishniont, Avitli suitable 
provisions, all the produce, \Vhich can be gleaned from the 
Academic farm, by skillful cultivation, should be applied; 
and from two hundred acres of good land, every foot of 
which sliould be brought into requisition, there might bo 
raised a very considerable quantity of provision, which 
would, if applied economically, and to the best possible ad- 
vantage, make a material decrease of expenditure for pro- 
vision. Besides the wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, beans, and 
other vegetables, which would be gleaned from the farm, 
tifteen or twenty hogs miglit be fatted yearly, for pork, and 
four or live cattle, for beef, which would supply the larder 
with a sufficiency of salted meat, for the ^ear. In the pas- 
tures of the farm, in the summer, and, in the winter, upon 
the hay, straw, and other fodder for cattle, gleaned from the 
fami, might be kept twenty or thirty cows, which would sup- 
ply the establishment with most of the cheese and buttci-, 
which would he necessary for consumption in the Academic 
family. 

Tiie one liuiidred acres appropriated for Avoodland, if 
surrounded with a substantial fence, so that the small 
growth of timber and underwood, might not l)e stinted by 
the browsing of cattle, and if husbanded with economy, 
would furnish the Academic establishment with an uniailing 
supply of fuel. 

Again — All the products of the labor, performed in the 
male and female departments, such as boxes, chairs, tables, 
3arn, cloth, lace, hosiery, et cetera, should be sold once per 
(juarter, upon the best possible terms, either for cash or ap- 
proved credit, and the avails be applied to the further liqui- 
dation of the expenses of the establishment, in buying 
grain, flour, and otlier stores; or else, those articles of manu- 
facture, derived from the operations of the Mechanical 
departments, should be exchanged in barter for necessary pro- 
visions. 

Again — Those farmers, mechanics, and professional men, 
belonging to tiie county, who have children or relations in 



160 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the institution, and who have, therefore, an immediate inter- 
est involved in its prosperity, should purchase the products 
of the pupil's workmanship, in preference to purchasing 
them elsewhere, at the same, or even a diminished price. 
Should such an institution ever go into operation, as I ar- 
dently hope it may, for the good of the country, the perpe^. 
tuity and extension of freedom, and the henefit of unborn 
millions — such would be the legitimate tendency of partiali- 
ties, in favor of that institution, on the part of the surroun- 
ding community. Parents, and guardians, and public spiri-. 
ted men, would not only go from the outermost boundaries 
of the county, to attend the fairs and witness the exhibitions 
of the pupils, quarterly, but they would adopt it, as a prin- 
ciple of duty, to go prepared to purchase boxes, chairs, tables, 
yarn, cloth, lace, hose, or any other article of the students' 
production; and, in some instances, no doubt, they would, 
for the mere sake of patronizing and encouraging the labors 
of the pupils, give three or five times as much for an article, 
as it was actually worth. 

Again — Parents, since they are, by the proposed arrange- 
ment, relieved from the care and anxiety, attendant upon 
training their offspring, which all, who have had experience, 
know to be very considerable, and since they are relieved 
also from the burden of making provision for their necessi- 
ties in food, drink, and apparel, should pay, at least, one- 
half or two-thirds of the money which it would cost to fur- 
nish materials and make their apparel, into the Academic 
treasury, to defray the expenses of their children's wardrobe 5 
and reserve the other half or one-third to supply the destitu- 
tion of their serv^ices, at home, upon the farm, or in the 
workshop. 

In like manner, two-thirds of the produce, which children 
would consume at home, while boarding with their parents, 
should be sent to the granaries of the Institution, consisting 
of wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, and, if necessary, butter and 
cheese; the other one-third of that produce, being reserved 
by the parents, as in a former case, to remunerate for the 



LECTUftfe ON EbUCAl'ION. 161 

lack of person aI service oh the part of the child, Occasioned 
by his absence from home. 

Having thus gone over the whole ground of the objectiort, 
that "the expenses of boarding all pupils, from the age of 
eight to eighteen years, in the county institution, and the 
expense of clothing those pupils, during that period of ten 
years, must be so enormous, that no parent, possessed of an 
ordinary competency, could have the ability to sustain it, 
even if he had the disposition"— h-eiy'ing gone, I say, over the 
whole ground of this objection, and surveyed it narrowly, 
inch by inch, let us now sum up the whole of our inves- 
gations in a brief, and see how the matter stands. 

To make the expenditures of the boarding establishment 
of the county school as light as possible, we recommended, 
in the first place, that provision should be plain, and the 
(greater proportion of it vegetable provision, in order, not only 
to effect the lessening of expenditure, but also to preserve the 
health of the pupils, unimpaired. 

Next, we advocated the most rigid economy in the kitchen, 
in the pantry, upon the table, and in all the domestic prepa- 
rations, not only in dealing out the provisions of the store- 
room, with discriminating judgment, but, in bringing into 
requisition, so far as practicable, the services of the wives 
and families of the professors, and the pupils of the female 
department. 

We, further, advocated the employment of a tailor, for the 
males, and a milliner and mantua-maker for the females, at 
the expense of the institution ; whose business it should be 
to cut and prepare the suits and dresses for the pupils, 
which, when cut and prepared, should be made by the mem- 
bers of the female institute, who should, also, make all the 
other requisite wearing apparel for the males. 

Again, to defray expenses which might actually accrue, 
after all these precautions to avoid expense, we recommen- 
ded, that all the produce of the farm should be brought into 
requisition— that all the avails of the Mechanical depart- 
ments should be devoted to the same purpose — that parents 
•21 



162 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

should pay into the Academic treasury, two-thirds of the 
money that it would cost to clothe their children at home ; 
and into the granary of the institution, two-thirds of the pro- 
duce which tliey would consume while hoarding at home. 

Thus have we collected together all the important items, 
which are in favor of such a hoarding establishment, or 
which militate against it. We have drawn a schedule of 
its expenses and its means of defraying those expenses — a 
sheet of its debts and credits, posted and presented in one 
point of view. We have summed up the whole, and struck 
a balance. What is the result? On which side of the 
book does the balance stand? On the debifs or the credifs 
side? On the credWs side. If there be a possibilit}^ of arri- 
ving at certain, naked truth, by means of sober, mathema- 
tical calculations, it would actually cost the parent less to 
support his child at such an institution, according to the 
plan suggested, in preceding remarks, than it would to sup- 
port him at home. If we take into consideration the vast 
number congregated in one boarding house — the consequent 
facility to decrease the expenses of each — the plainness and 
cheapness, but, at the same time, zcholesomeness of the provi- 
sions — the rigid economy of the establishment in every par- 
ticulai' — the consecration of the proceeds of the farm and 
the Mechanical Institute to the purposes of liquidating the 
debts of the establishment — the payment, into the treasury 
of the institution, two-thirds of the expense which it costs 
the parent to clothe his children at home, and into its grana- 
ries two-thirds of the produce, of all kinds, which those chil- 
dren would consume, if they boarded with their parents; can 
we come to any other conclusion, than, that we have made 
abundant provision — provision sufficient, and more than suf- 
ficient, to defray every expense of the institution, besides 
amply remunerating the parent, as I conceive, for the loss 
of his child's services for ten years, by reserving for his use, 
one-third of what it would cost to clothe and board his chil- 
dren? It seems that we cannot but have made out a case 
as plain, almost, as mathematical demonstration could have 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 163 

made it. But, lest some should say, that we have not done 
it, let us continue our mathematical calculations still further, 
and take some different views of the subject. 

What would it, probably, cost to support a single pupil, in 
the county institution, for a year, and defray all his expenses 
for board and tuition ? According to a computation which- 
has been already made, six dollars would be the cost of tui- 
tion; but, let us say, two dollars per quarter, or eight dollars 
a year, which would, in that case, increase the receipts of 
the treasuries of the institution, for tuition bills, to forty-one 
thousand and six hundred dollars; provided that the thirty- 
nine professors should instruct five thousand and two hun- 
dred pupils, as they might, according to our plan, as we have 
previously demonstrated — making the receipts for tuition, 
over and above the salaries of the professors, ten thousand 
and four hundred dollars per annum. To the sum of eight 
dollars for tuition of each pupil per annum, let the probable 
cost of his board be added, which could not exceed seventy- 
five cents or a dollar, and, at such a ratio, the aggregate 
expense of board and tuition, would be sixty dollars per 
annum. Now, let us afiix a valuation to the pupil's servi- 
ces, provided that he works three hours each day, or nine 
hundred and thirty-six hours each year, which is equivalent 
to seventy-eight working days per annum, allowing twel^ 
hours per day. 

Let us suppose that the pupil's labors will be available 
eight years out of the ten which he spends in the institutiouj. 
and that he must earn fifty cents, at least, per day, allowing 
twelve hours' industrious labor to each day, which would 
amount to thirty-nine dollars per year; leaving only a bal- 
ance, for his year's expenses for board and tuition, unpaid, 
of Iwenty-one dollars. But, I think that our estimate of his 
services for twelve hours' hard labor, since he comes to it in 
all the untamed vigor of his physical strength, and toils but 
one hour at a time, is not sufficiently liberal — not what he 
would actually earn. Seventy-five cents per day would not 
be too high an estimate for his earnings. According to such 
an estimate, the pupil would earn fifty-eight dollars and fifty 



164 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

cents per annum, which would liquidate all the expenses of 
his board and tuition, excepting a small balance of one dol- 
lar and fifty cents: and what liberal-minded man would not 
be willing to pay the trifling amount of one dollar and fifty 
cents, by giving, perhaps, for some article of the pupil's ma- 
nufacture, a price so much larger than its real value, that he 
might be enabled, independently of all extraneous aid, to 
pay for his own board and tuition? We shall not then, 
indeed, according to this computation, be under the neces- 
sity of calling upon the parent to defray the expenses of his 
child's board and tuition, excepting for the two first years of 
his term of pupilage; and poor, and lazy, and heathenish 
indeed, must that parent be, who would not, out of his for- 
tunes, or his earnings, pay one hundred and twenty dollars 
toward his child's expenses, during the period of ten years. 
How, then, stands the matter now? Why, the five thousand 
and two hundred pupils, after receiving each, one hundred 
and twenty dollars from the earnings of their parents, during 
the period of ten years, defray the i-emaindcr of their expen- 
ses for board by labor, besides paying into the treasury eight 
dollars apiece yearly, or forty-one thousand and six hundred 
dollars, in the aggregate; making in the treasury, a surplus, 
after paying all the salaries of the thirty-nine professors, and 
paying them liherally^ of ten thousand and four hundred 
dollars; which surplus might either be funded safely to draw 
interest for the benefit of the institution, or, if necessary, it 
might be expended for apparatus, books, or other necessaries, 
for the Academic departments. 

Much more might be said to show tliat the proposed sys- 
tem of education obtains, by investigation, illustration, and 
argument, a vast superiority over the old and radically erro- 
neous system — that it is cheaper and better in every light in 
which it can be contemplated. I might go on to amplify, 
until I had filled a quarto with those arguments and illustra- 
tions. But, I forbear. Enough has been said to elucidate 
and establish our positions. Men of sense will imagine the 
rest. All the arguments which lend tiicir support to estab- 
lish this theory, will occur to their minds, and they will have 



LECTUUE« ON KDUCATIOX. 1G5 

the candor to acknowledge the force and vaUdity of those 
arguments. Indeed, they are as numerous as the sands upon 
the sea shore, or the drops of morning devr. While contem- 
plating the subject, it expands, and widens, and stretches 
out on every hand, into a glorious and interminable perspec- 
tive. Sublime, and beautiful, and animating, beyond descrip-" 
tion, are the prospects which burst upon the sight! Standing 
wliere I do, upon this mount of vision, before the eye of the 
mind, events unfold. The curtain of futurity rises. Fifty 
years vanish. The space betv\'een this moment and eigh- 
teen hundred and eighty-three is annihilated. I survey the 
prospect. Astonishing! What a transformation! King- 
doms have fallen. Empires have fallen. Not a crowned 
potentate is to be seen among all the happy and innumera- 
ble ranks of men. THE GLOBE CONSTITUTES BUT 
ONE VAST REPUBLIC! By the experiments of the 
laboratory, new chimical agents are discovered and applied 
to the commerce and arts of life, more powerful than the 
agent of steam; ' or else agents long since discovered, are 
found to possess' properties more powerful than any that have 
yet been brought into requisition. Yes, I sec the extremities 
of this vast republic, whicli stretches out before me, with all 
its scenes of indescribable interest, brought, as it were, two 
or three thousand miles into nearer communion with each 
other, by the increased facilities of communication, and the 
increased speed of traveling. The "swift-winged messen- 
gers" dart through the atmosphere upon the pinions, and 
with the velocity of the eagle — or glance by cities and vil- 
lages, and through the country, leap upon the hills, and rush 
down into the valleys, rapid as the shadow of the storm- 
cloud, as it flies over the landscape — or dance along the 
waters, and j^ound over the billows of the ocean, like a 
sheet of vapor upon a summer morning, or a gossamer in the 
** breezes. Over all the hal)itations, and in all the bowers of 
the green globe, I look, and behold- peace, plenty, and hap-, 
pincss. The temple of Janus is shut and bolted with bars 
of adamant. No more are to be seen the crimson pictures 
of the battle field. No more do I behold the smoking 



\QQ LECTURES ON ETJUCATION. 

ruins of cities, garments rolled in blood, and countries clo- 
thed with desolation. No more do I hear the shouts of vic- 
tory commingled, in horrid discord, with the groans of the 
dying, and the shrieks of the anguished, while the carrion 
bird flaps its sooty wings, and croaks over its anticipated ban- 
quet. What agent has wrought this mighty transformation? 
Education, moral and intellectual. Education in institu- 
tions, where the rich and the poor come together upon a 
footing of republican equality--in institutions, where LA- 
BOR IS DIVIDED AMONG TEACHERS. 



LECTURE V. 

PART II. 
SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR AMONG TEACHERS. 

By a reference to previous remarks, it will be seen, that 
W€ have demonstrated that schools, based upon the princi- 
ple which lies at the foundation of our theory, can be sus- 
tained respectably at the same, and even at a less expense, 
than is now incurred in training and educating children — 
that teachers will, in the aggregate, receive double and 
sometimes treble the salary which they now receive, and 
that pupils will attain five times the amount of actual availa- 
ble knowledge in the same time, which they now attain. 
Thus we disproved the assertion, and removed the objection, 
that schools, founded upon this basis, must be far more ex- 
pensive than those founded upon the basis of the old system. 
Wc placed them upon the firm pedestal of their own inde- 
pendence of all extraneous aid, excepting merely that pat- 
ronage, which is at present bestowed upon schools, and those 
funds, which are at present expended, in training up chil- 
dren. 

We have advocated the indiscriminate education of all 
children without distinction, whether they be rich or poor; 
whether they live in the miserable hovel or the lordly man- 
sion. There might, however, be many orphans left penny- 
less by their fathers and mothers, and many children of un- 
fortunate and sickly parents and widows, who could receive 
no assistance from home. For such we have made no pro- 
visions, as yet, in our theory. They must, however, be pro- 
vided for. They must receive pecuniary aid from some 
quarter, sufficient to defray all those expenses, which they 



1^^ LECTURES) O.N EDUCATION. 

inust ncces^^arily incur, during their Academic course, over 
and above the avails of their labor. 

There would, however, be, I doubt not, many liberal men 
in each county, who would give cheerfully, and give boun- 
tifully, for the accomplishment of an object so commendable 
and so important t6 the welfare of our common country. 
These donations Would, in a few years, amount to a fund of 
several thousand dollars, the interest of which, would be suf- 
ficient to defray the expenses of those, who could receive no 
Assistance from parents or guardians, or from an estate of 
their own. But this would, however, be a method of ob- 
taining those means rather uncertain — too precarious to be 
depended upon with confidence. We have, therefore, ano- 
ther proposition to suggest, which is already furnished in a 
pamphlet, addressed "to the citizens and legislators of the 
United States of America," and printed February 22, 1833. 
Although neither the office at which it was published, nor 
the author by whom it was published, were specified, and 
although it was circulated through the country gratuitously, 
yet, since it coi'respoiids precisely with my own sentiments 
upon this subject, I adopt it, Avithout being solicitous to dis- 
cover the soui-ce whence it emanated, as that could not alter, 
in any wise, its intrinsic propriety and adaptedness to pro- 
mote the grand object proposed. 

PROP SIT 10 jY. 

1. "All tlie lands now belonging to the United States, and 
all the lands which may hereafter be acquired by the Uni- 
ted States, shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the sup- 
port of Education. The proceeds of the stiles of all sucli 
lands, after defraying the incidental expenses, shall be an- 
nually distributed among the several states, according to 
the ratio of their representation, and shall, by them, respec- 
tively, be invested, cither in works of internal improvement, 
each state guarantying the legal interest, or in such other 
Vs'j; manner as the state may deem most secure and productive. 
The interest arising from said investments shall be invaria- 
bly appropriated and applied to the support of the com- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION- 169 

men schools, or a system of General Education throughout 
each state. 

2. "Of said interest or income not more than one-half 
shall be expended in the purchase of lots, the erecting and 
repairing of buildings, furniture, fuel, and other incidental 
or subsidiary objects; and the other half at least, shall be 
positivel}^ applied to the payment of teachers, purchase of 
books, apparatus, and to other direct and essential purposes 
of General Education. 

3. "Lots not exceeding one hundred acres may be sold to 
actual settlers on credit for an indefinite time, at per cen- 
tum yearly interest; which interest and the principal, when 
paid, shall be paid to the treasuries of the states in which 
said lots arc located, and the amount deducted from the 
dividend due such states, on account of land, from the gene- 
ral treasury." 

Such is the proposition which is addressed, by the 
Pamphlet, "to the Citizens and Legislators of the United 
States of America, which, in its general features, receives my 
cordial approbation, as the grand means which will effect 
the desired improvement in schools. But, I will let the au- 
thor of that proposition speak for himself, and, in his own 
language, advocate its propriety and its adapteriness to sup- 
ply the necessities of the case, and to accomplish the objects 
proposed. 

"To the serious consideration of those most deeply inte- 
rested, and possessed of requisite power, the Sovereign 
People and their Representatives, the foregoing proposition 
is submitted, as the substance of a necessary Act of Congress, 
and, as soon as practicable, of an amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States. 

"It earnestly invites inquiry, and fearlessly challenges 
scrutiny; and if it is intrinsically and essentially good, and 
just, both in its immediate and its remote tendency, the more 
extensively and thoroughly it shall be examined and studied, 
the more certain and speedy will be its adoption. Explicit 
in its great principles, it may admit of some minor modifica- 
tions. Thus, if any individual state can substantiate a just 



170 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

claim to a larger portion of the educational fund than the 
others, let their just claim be granted; and from the proceeds 
of 'the lands hereafter acquired,' it is intended that the 
purchase money be deducted before their appropriation to 
schools." 

At the present favorable era, when EDUCATION is a 
general theme with tlie press and with the people, — when its 
various beauties and benefits are discussed and applauded in 
theory, and its defectiveness, and often total absence, are wit- 
nessed and severely experienced in reality, — and when the 
payment of the national debt leaves the public lands at the 
public disposal, it seems peculiarly desirable that so valua- 
ble an auxiliary should be secured. These lands would 
supply the means of laying a deep, broad and strong founda- 
tion; and the most valid reasons exist why they should, and 
no valid reasons exist why they should not, be righteously 
and rigidly appropriated to a common school system m each 
state. 

"To provide for the general welfare^'^ is one of the first du- 
ties enjoined upon Congress by the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, and the most effectual, if not the only certain 
and permanent mode of fulfilling this great duty of provi- 
ding for the general welfare, is to provide for general edu- 
cation. 

On the self-evident truth that all men are born equal, with 
the inherent, unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness, is based our declaration of Independence, 
the National and State Constitutions, and the statute laws 
generally. The civil rights thus nominally secured by con- 
stitution and by law, are accorded by public sentiment and 
usage, anfl all citizens, (with certain specified exceptions) 
act as electors, as jur}^ men, as witnesses, as armed men, or 
soldiers; are themselves eligible to all agencies or offices; 
and in these various ways have in their power, and at their 
disposal, the property, the rights, the happiness, and the lives 
of their fellowicitizens. But, although of the working classes 
of men, some may be degraded by ignorance down to the 
level, and others sunk' below the level of working slaves, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 171 

working cattle, or working machines, they are hy no means 
equally harmless: their civil rights do not become merely a 
dead letter, but infinitely worse; and they become the cer- 
tain prey of their own evil propensities and perverted pow- 
ers, as well as the passive and dangerous material forunprinr 
cipled but more knowing agents. 

By universal education only can the increase of vice and 
crime, of pauperism and misery, be efficiently checked. 
The inmates of the jails, hospitals, prisons, penitentiaries, 
and of the haunts of vice and dissipation, are generally com- 
posed of the uninstructcd or the badly instructed; and is it 
not unjust and cruel in the extreme, for the influential and 
enlightened to punish the effects of that ignorance which 
their own criminal neglect permits? The children of those 
hard-working people, whose courage and perseverance first 
won and have since securely preserved our national exis- 
tence — whose labor has given to the property of the country 
its value, improved the national lands, and supplied the na- 
tional revenues, of both of which they are joint owners — and 
who have contributed, at least, their full proportion to 
public works and improvements; the children of these in- 
dustrious classes are, in very many instances, growing up an 
opprobrium to the legislators, a burden and a curse to them- 
selves, their parents, and their country, for want of those fa- 
cilities of education, which, if afforded by government, would 
render them to all these equally an ornament and a support. 
Certainly it should be the paramount study, as it is the posi- 
tive interest and duty, of the law-givers and leaders of public 
opinion, to afford every possible aid and sanction to this vital 
object, instead of further neglecting, encumbering, or post- 
poning — leaving it to linger an imperfect and a doubtful ex- 
istence, dependent upon charity or chance. 

"The number of young citizens who do, or who should at- 
tend the common schools, are more than one quarter of the 
whole population of the country. Even independently of the 
incalculable advantage to themselves and their fellows in af- 
ter-life, how supremely desirable is it, that the spring time of 
these youth should be passed innocently, profitably, and hap- 



172 UBCTURES ON EDUCATION. 

pily, and that for this purpose existing schools be improved 
and new ones established. 

"In the short series of eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen years, 
the bulk of the rising generation passes into the present; the 
passive, dependent children become the active, independent 
adults — free men and women, assuming all the rights, duties, 
and responsibilities of rational human beings. In this short 
period, what an omnipotent influence for good or for evil, 
over the destinies of this country and of mankind, may be 
exerted by the agency or the absence of education. The 
age thus regenerated or degenerated, in its turn, moulds 
the next, and so on in a rapidly progressive series without 
end. 

"The inferiority of our colored population, arises chiefly 
from their ignorance; and were the wliites deprived of their 
present opportunities of knowledge, they would soon relapse 
into the degradation and barbarism of the enslaved African 
and the savage Indian ; and before long, perhaps in one brief 
generation, the People's sovereignty would expire and be 
succeeded by anarchy and despotism. 

"This proposition may with propriety be considered and 
called the Reform Bill of this country. If adopted, it would 
produce as great and as happy consequences to the United 
States, by redressing past, relieving present, and preventing 
future wrongs and miseries, as the Reform Bill of Great 
Britain, will cause to that nation. The proposed appropria- 
tion is evidently neither visionary nor ultra-democratic. 
The United States' Senate represent, not equal portions of 
country, or equal numbers of its population, but distinct state 
sovereignties extremely unequal in these respects: they are 
elected not annually, but for the long term of six years; not 
by the people, but by the Legislatures of the states, parta- 
king in these various particulars of the character of a house 
of Lords or aristocrats. Yet two reports, containing proposals 
for aiding education, not unsimilar to the one now offered to 
the public, emanated from that honorable body. In the U. S. 
Senate, March 5, 1825, there were referred to a special com- 
Wiittee, resolutions, tliat the public lands in the United States 



LECTURES ON EDUCATIOX. 173 

be appropriated and pledged as a permanent and perpetual 
fund, the one half for education and the other for internal 
improvement; the interest of the proceeds of the sale of the 
lands be distributed among the several states according to the 
ratio of representation, and under their authority applied to 
those objects. To the Executives of the states, the committee, 
through their chairman, Josiah S. Johnston, addressed a cir- 
cular, requesting certain pertinent information, viz. 'What 
measures have been adopted by law, in the state in which 
you preside, for the encouragement of education? What 
system has been established for primary schools? What 
funds have been provided for them? What number of youth 
arc educated? What literary institutions are founded and 
how endowed, and what number of scholars are educated at 
them? What is the price of tuition at the primary schools? 
What the ordinary expense of education at the colleges? 
What public Internal Improvements have been executed?' 
&c. &c. 

"At the next session also, May 11, 1826, Mr. Dickerson, 
from a committee of the U. States' Senate, reported in fa- 
vor of dividing among the states annually, a portion of the 
national revenues for the purposes of Education and Inter- 
nal Improvement, and thus making the reduction of the pub- 
lic debt more gradual. This report suggested the distribu- 
tion of .^5,000,000 per annum from the year next following 
until 1832; and then $40,000,000 jearly till 1838; after 
which time the yearly dividends to the states for Education 
and Internal Improvement Avould be increased to ^15,000,- 
000. This plan, for aught that appears, met with the same 
neglect as that of the preceding year. But as the payment 
of the public debts, as well as of private ones, is one of the 
highest and plainest duties, perhaps the people should not 
complain if their common funds have been appropriated to 
this just object, although just education has been delayed. 

"The public debt being now liquidated, the U. S. Senate 
have appropriated, for five years, the net proceeds of the j)ub- 
lic lands to Education, Internal Improvement, &c. Now 
with the sincerest deference to our highest National Coun- 



174 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

cil, probably the most talented and public spirited body of 
statesmen in the world, it is asked whether the improvement 
of the Human Family, particularly the portion which their 
fellow citizens compose, is not paramount in importance, to 
the improvement of roads and rivers? — That local improve- 
ments are too frequently mere money making schemes of a 
few interested land holders and speculating jobbers and 
contractors, is a generally known and acknowledged fact. 
Even those internal improvements which are decidedly of a 
public or national character must, from the nature of things, 
by diverting trade, travel, and migration from other sections 
of the country, seriously injure the business and depreciate 
the property of such portions; their different location admit- 
ting of no counterbalancing improvement. It appears from 
the President's Message of 1830, that 'The estimated ex- 
pense of works of which surveys have been made, together 
with that of others projected and partially surveyed, amount 
to more than ninety-six millions of dollars.' If to construct 
these projected works, any large sum were taken directly 
from the common funds, a very considerable portion would 
chiefly benefit a few scheming individuals, and the owners 
of the soil immediately or nefirly contiguous, to the positive 
detriment of the other joint owners of the public treasures, 
who may be more remotely or less advantageously located. 
May not the expediency of those public works be questioned, 
whose profits, if tollagc were taken,' would not eventually 
pay something like the cost of construction and repairs? In 
such works only are capitalists and companies unwilling to 
invest their surplus funds, which in the peaceable times arc 
abundant. And by the 'proposition,' herewith submitted, 
the large fund accruing for education, may be rendered sub- 
servient to internal improvement also, by being invested in 
productive roads, canals, bridges, &c. by such states as may 
deem it expedient. It is not intended to depreciate in the 
slightest degree the value of any public works whatever, 
nor the importance of such works generally; but the sole ob- 
ject of them all, facility of locomotion, with all its utility, 
cannot be put in comparison with Education, and should 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 175 

not come in competition or collision with it. Intellectual 
improvement should not in its 'march,' be merely parallel 
with internal improvement; it should precede as a pioneer, 
and it will lead with certainty and safety: if it be left to fol- 
low, it will drag heavily and lag far in the rear. If all the 
inhabitants of the United States should be well instructedj 
they would, as a matter of course, possess the ingenuity, in* 
dustry and disposition necessary to establish every possible 
mode of conveyance by land and by water, that comfort and 
convenience might require; but on the other hand, the whole 
extent of our territory, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pa- 
cific, might, by the appropriation of all public and (if needs 
be) private property, be converted into a variegated surface 
of continuous canals, and locks, and basins, and bridges, and 
high roads, and rail roads, and McAdamized roads, and in- 
clined planes; and still by the neglect of education, all the 
variations and gradations of class that noAV compose society 
might be merged in a state of total ignorance and brutality, 
in which the sole unqualified distinction would be that of 
tyrant and slave. Our government is based on the princi- 
ple that sovereignty exists only in the people themselves. If 
the great mass of the people be possessed of intelligence 
and probity, it is next to a moral impossibility that their 
'rulers,' who would then be their agents, should not be 
both capable, and honest: and if by any means, unworthy 
or unfit agents, should in the first instance be selected, or if 
they should afterwards become so, they would be speedily 
superseded and punished. But if the bulk of the people be 
sunk in ignorance and degradation, the chance of their dele- 
gated officers being honest and capable would be more des- 
perate than that for the highest lottery prize. An upright 
man could not and would not stoop to the intrigue, bribery, 
deceit, and coercion of the electioneering system under such 
a state of things; and even were a virtuous, talented man, 
by any mistake to be elected, he would be comparatively 
useless, for his wise and just measures would receive sanc- 
tion and support neither from his fellow representatives nor 



176 LECTURES ON EDUCATIOiSi 

from his constituents— such a representative would in fact 
be no representative at all. 

"The great majority (two thirds) of the several states, have, 
by express clauses in their respective constitutions, given 
the most distinct and decided testimony of the immense, the 
vital importance of general education; why do not they give 
a corresponding efficient aid to this great object, and a con- 
sistent sanction to their own sentiments, by imitating the 
two following precedents? 

"In 1795, Connecticut appropriated all her remaining 
lands, in value ^^1,200,000, as a perpetual fund for the sup- 
port of schools in the state; and in 1821, the framers of the 
Revised Constitution of the State of New York, truly appre- 
ciating the intrinsic value of Education, secured to this ob- 
ject, but at an unfortunately late period, all the then unap- 
propriated lands of the state, as will be seen by the follow- 
ing extract* 

" 'Const. Art. 7, Sec. 10. The proceeds of all lands be- 
longing to this state, except such parts thereof as may be re- 
served or appropriated to public use, or ceded to the United 
States, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, together 
with the fund denominated the common school fund, shall 
be and remain a perpetual fund; the interest of which shall 
be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of 
common schools throughout this state.' 

"The following excellent paragraph is from the Constitu- 
tion of Massachusetts, (New Hampshire's contains the same.) 
It is inserted the rather, as being explicit on the objects of edu- 
cation. 

"'Chap. 5, Sec. 2. The encouragement of Literature. — Wis- 
dom and knowledge, as Avell as virtue, diffiised generally 
among the body of the people, being necessary for the pre- 
servation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on 
spreading the opportunities and advantages of Education in 
the various parts of the countr}'', and among the different or- 
ders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislatures and 
magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 177 

cherish the interests of literature, and the sciences, and all 
seminaries of them; especially the University at Cambridge; 
public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encour- 
age private societies and public institutions, by rewards and 
immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, 
commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of 
the country; to countcnanee and inculcate the principle of hu- 
manity and general benevolence^ public and private charity^ in- 
dustry and frugality ^hnnPRty and punriiiality in their dealings; 
sincerity^ good humor, and all social affections and generous sen- 
timents among the people,'' 

"The General Government, if faithful to the dearest in- 
terests of the country, will exhibit equal care and liberality 
on this subject. They now possess the means of acting as 
effectively as New York has done. The governments of 
several other nations have, by official acts, secured general 
instruction. 'The constitution of Peru (South America) pro- 
vides that, after the year 1840, no one shall enjoy the privi- 
lege of citizenship who is not able to read and write.' And 
it was not long since stated in a French paper, that 'in Aus- 
tria, in each village, there are schools, the masters of which 
are paid by the government. No one is allowed to marry 
who cannot read, w^rite, and show some acquaintance with 
arithmetic; and, under a penalty, no master can employ a 
workman, who is not able to read and write. Small works 
on moral subjects, written with great care, are circulated 
among the lower classes. Hence, crimes are exceedingly 
rare, and in the course of a twelvemonth, scarce two execu- 
tions now take place in Vienna.' 

"The devotion of all the public lands to the general school 
fund is required, partly as a matter of indemnity, because 
the subject of education has been hitherto strangely over- , 
looked by the United States' Government. Since 1791, 
Congress has appropriated to various objects, more than 
eight hundred millions of dollars. Of this immense expen- 
diture, only about one hundredth part, has been paid for edu- 
cation. 

23 



178 LECTURES ON EDTKMTION. 

"The second section of 'the Proposition' requires that at 
least an equal portion of the contemplated school fund be 
devoted to the essentials of general education. The great 
cause of the failure of all the useful and charitable institu- 
tions is, that the end becomes absorbed in the means. Small 
would be the advantage, if the people's treasures vs^ere res- 
cued from the pride of canal and rail road speculators, only 
to be lavished on an immense pyramid, although the costly 
heap of stones should be inscribed with the word 'Educa- 
tion;' and this reversed process of alchimy, by converting 
gold into stones, will be practiced as usual, unless crafty con- 
tractors and subtle speculators be excluded at the beginning, 
by express prohibitory clauses, and ever afterwards by unre- 
mitting vigilance. 

"Nothing can be more unequal, and therefore unjust, than 
the direct appropiiation by the general government, of the 
public lands or revenues, to the internal improvement of 
particular portions or sections of the country. The follow- 
ing extracts show the unqualified opposition of the state of 
New York to this practice. 

"legislature of new YORK IN ASSEMBLY, MARCH 10, 1831. 

" '■Distribution of the surplus revenue of the U. States. — The 
following resolutions, heretofore offered by the committee 
of Ways and Means, of which Mr. Selden is chairman, were 
called up in the Assembly by Mr. Selden, and were passed 
without debate, and unanimously — 

"'Resolved, if the Senate concur. That the surplus reve- 
nues of the United States, bej'ond what shall be deemed by 
Congress necessary for the expenses of the general govern- 
ment, and a proper provision for public defence and safety, 
ought to be annually distributed among the several states, 
according to their population, to be estimated in the manner 
pointed out by the second section of the first article of the 
constitution, for the apportionment of representatives and 
direct taxes. 

'"Resolved, if the Senate concur, That the governor be 
desired to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolution to the 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 179 

executives of the difTerent states, to be laid before their re- 
spective legislatures, with a request that they will take the 
same into consideration, and transmit the result of their pro- 
ceedings to this and the other states, and also to the Presi- 
dent of the United States, to be laid before Congress.' 

" 'in SENATE APRIL 14, 1832. 

"'Mr. Benton, from the sp.lect committee, to which was 
referred so much of the governor's message as relates to the 
distribution of the surplus revenue of the United States 
among the several states of the Union; and also the concur- 
rent resolution of the Assembly, proposing such distribution; 
made a long report on that subject. The committee went 
into a long argument to show that Congress have NO right 
to exercise the power — 

'"1st. To co7isf/-«c/ works of Internal improvement within 
the limits of the states, assuming jurisdiction over the territory 
which they occupy, with power to preserve them when con- 
structed, and to punisli offences committed on them.' 

" '2d. To appropriate money from the national treasury, 
in aid of such works when undertaken by state authority, 
surrendering the claim of jurisdiction; and 

'"3d. To aid in the construction of such works by sub- 
scribing to the stock of private associations or incorporated 
companies. 

" 'In support of their arguments, the committee quote from 
the celebrated report of Mr. Madison, in 1799. 

" 'The report states, that under the power of appr pria- 
ting the public funds. Congress, in different shapes, has con- 
tributed about ^5,000,000 to works of internal improvement, 
and bestowed upon some of the states about 20,000,000 of 
acres of land, equal to at least t^'25,000,000. 

" 'The report further says, that the bestowment of largesses 
upon particular states, which may serve as political bribes, 
is disgusting to an intelligent and fred people, and tends, if 
any thing can, to create distrust of the honesty and integrity 
of the representative in the mind of the constitilent. These 
consideratiops come in aid, and press strongly upon oui* 



180 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

judgments, the great necessity and propriety, as well as the 
undoubted expediency, of reducing the distribution of the 
surplus revenue to some fixed rate, and placing it upon some 
certain principle. 

"'The committee recommend the passage of the resolu- 
tion from the Assembly.' 

"The third section of 'the Proposition' authorizes the sale 
of lots, not exceeding one hundred acres, to actual settlers, 
on credit for an indefinite time. This arrangement would 
afford to American citizens of enterprise, the opportunity 
of securing an independent freehold on easy terms, and to 
the oppressed of other nations, a permanent home, and pro- 
mote an accelerated and certain settlement and cultivation 
of the lands; the large fund gradually accruing for educa- 
tion being still secured. Thus equal and exact justice would 
be rendered to each of the citizens of the United States, 
who are all joint owners of the public lands, which amount 
to upwards of 340,000,000 of acres. 

"President Jackson, in his last annual message, says, 'it is 
in the discretion of Congress to dispose of the public lands 
in such way as best to conduce to the quiet, harmony and 
general interests of the American people. All local and 
sectional feelings should be discarded, and the whole United 
States regarded as one people, interested alike in the pros- 
perity of tlieir common country. It seems to be our true pol- 
icy tliat the lands shall cease as soon as practicable to be a 
source of revenue.' 

"With all the respect due to the opinion of America's 
Chief Magistrate, the successor of Washington and Jeffer- 
son, who has been successively honored with the confidence 
of a free people, more than twice as numerous as were their 
constituents, it is submitted, whether 'the Proposition,' devo- 
ting the public lands to education, and allowing settlers to 
buy farms of 100 acres on credit, would not promote the lib- 
eral, equitable, and enlightened views just quoted, more fully 
and effectually, than the President's proposal, that 'the pub- 
lic lands should be sold to settlers in limited parcels, at a 
price barely sufficient to reimburse to the United States the 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 181 

expense of the present system, and the cost arising under 
our Indian compacts.' — Would not this nominal price be 
nearly tantamount to a gratuitous gift of^ the land, in limited 
parcels, to such favored individuals as might be both able and 
willing to settle on them? Would not such a measure operate 
inequitably on all the honest purchasers vk^ho have already 
bought land at the rate of $'1,25 per acre, to the amount of 
^10,000,000; and on the southern sea-board states, Virginia, 
North and South Carohna, and Georgia, who haA^e granted 
much of tliese lands; since their agricultural labor being 
principally done by slaves, their population, generally speak- 
ing, could not avail themselves of tliis proposal for emigra- 
tion. And would it not also be inequitable towards the great 
bulk of the citizens of the United States, of every age and 
grade, only a very minute portion of whom, are so circum- 
stanced as to derive any benefit from this generous otlcr? 
Would it not exclude the aged and infirm, and their depen- 
dent connections; the widow, the orphan, and the destitute; 
the inmates of the hospitals, asylums, and poor-houses; all 
those incapacitated by distance or debt, the want of skill, 
health, or means, and the great mass of the mechanics, trades- 
men, and yeomanry throughout the Union, confined by busi- 
ness, habit, and a multiplicity of inextricable circumstances, 
to their present homes? Useful general education, being 
the most effectual and wholesome mode of distributing the 
public bounty, and dividing the public property among the 
poor, and all other classes of citizens, and their families; the 
public domain, secured to this just object, would transmit its 
benefits to them all. Whether engaged in agriculture or 
manufactures, in mechanical or mercantile pursuits, in useful 
or ornamental, or even mischievous occupations, the mariner, 
the miner, the warrior; the nobility, the mobility, and the 
middling class; all, by this means, would be rendei'cd wiser, 
better, and happier. 

"Last year a circular was transmitted from the Pi-esident's 
adopted state, (Ten-nessee) to the other states, remonstrating 
against the general government's appropriating money for 
internal improvement in the several stales, and advising that 



182 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the public lands be sold, and the proceeds appropriated to the 
purposes of education. The proceeds of the annual sale of 
the public lands, amounts to between two and three millions 
of dollars. To give away these lands, would be to give 
away their market value. The practice is sufficiently com- 
mon for nations to offer remote and unsaleable lands gratui- 
tously to colonists, and even to offer bounties or immunities, 
to procure their acceptance, and also to banish thither their 
criminals, as the Russians transport their culprits to Sibe- 
ria's wilds, and the English ship theirs to Botany Bay; but 
it is questioned, whether there be an instance on record of 
any nation, that peaceably and permanently, gave away 
valuable and saleable lands, to a favored portion of poor 
citizens, without adequate equivalent, to the exclusion, and 
therefore, at the expense of tens and hundreds of thousands of 
other citizens, equally deserving, and perhaps more necessi- 
tous, but whose situations absolutely forbid emigration. Our 
Military bounty lands were paid to soldiers for services ren- 
dered. On the contrary, the appropriation of the public do- 
main to general education is fully sanctioned by general 
usage. The different grants and reservations for education 
already made to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, &c. 
give their several testimony of the riglit and power of Con- 
gress to make the proposed appropriation; abundant pre- 
cedents are also furnished in the examples of New York, 
Connecticut, Maine, &c. in securing the state lands to edu- 
cation. The state of New York contains nearly one-sixth 
part of the population of the union, and proportionate rep- 
resentation and resources; it extends from the Atlantic to 
the lakes; from its size and situation, it unites the tliree 
great interests of the country, agriculture, manufactures, 
and commerce; and in elections by the whole people, its 
vote is pretty nearly divided betAveen the supporters and op- 
ponents of the present administration. For these reasons, as 
expressing the sentiments of a large and varied portion of 
the union, and not from any favoritism, is the authority of 
this state, in this and in other instances, quoted. This great 
and powerful state, nearly twelve years a^o, devoted exclu* 

■'•#■■■ 



LECTURES ON EDUCATIONi 183 

sively and permanently all her lands to general education, 
and with the most satisfactory results.^ 

"If, the more the three proposed sections are examined 
and studied, the more apparent will be their utility, then 
if they are not adopted it will be only for want of adequate 
investigation, or on account of the apathy and infatuation, 
equally astonishing and appalling, of the people and their 
rulers, with regard to their paramount interest and most im- 
perious duty. As far as retrospective justice is practicable, 
the appropriation of all public landed property to universal 
education would pay in perpetuity, in the person of their 
heirs and descendants, the interest of the national debt of 
equity no less than gratitude due to those revolutionary pa- 
triots, whose labors, health, and, in many instances, lives, 
were the price of our national independence, and whose 
fortunes were wrecked by the depreciation of continental 
currency; it would extend and establish throughout the 
Union the fundanjental rudiments of useful knowledge, 
which, owing to the various differing circumstances of emi- 
gration and settlement, of soil, occupation, &c. have been, 
are, and without this appropriation, ever must be, unequal 
in the extreme, in different portions of our country; it would 
encourage the states individually to apply their own surplus 
funds and lands to the same object; and it would set a bril- 
liant and irresistible- example to the rest of the world. For 
in proportion as this country shall realize that intelligence 
and haj)piness of which it is susceptible by means of impro- 
ved and universal popular instruction, its power as a pioneer 
or great light to the other nations will be magnified. Con- 
tinental Eui'ope will extend freedom and comfort to her peo- 
ple, better by the radical diffusion of knowledge than by 
the nominal change of government; and indeed many parts 
of the old Avorld, for instance, the states belonging to and 
contiguous to Germany, are quite in advance of some of our 
own states in their usage and laws on this subject. 

"If it be asked why the founders and supporters of the Uni- 
ted States of America have not long ago made the proposed 
appropriations of all the people's property and revenue, to a 



184 liECTXJRfiS ON EDUCATIdi^. 

Common School fund, the only reply and apology is, that till 
the present time the people have been deeply involved in 
debt. In the first year of Gen. Washington's adminis- 
tration, (1791,) the public debt of the United States amoun- 
ted to more than <j,-75,000,000, and after various fluctua- 
tions, it had increased in 1816, tov^^ard the close of the 
last war, to no less tlian |1 15,000,000. Since then, it has 
been gradually diminishing, and is now virtually extin- 
guished. 

"But to bring the subject in a new and no less true light, 
let it be imagined that these r>ropositions were already adop- 
ted; and that Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Rush, Frank- 
lin, and the other patriotic founders of this Republic, had 
possessed the power of perfecting its fabric and securing its 
perpetuity by general education; that all the pubhc lands 
and revenues had been unencumbered, at their disposal, and 
the benefits of their appropriation to popular instruction 
were now fully enjoyed throughout the. Union — with what 
mingled incredulity and horror would the people hear of any 
proposition or attempt to withdraw their property from the 
support of their schools, the great source of intelligence and 
freedom, to be left floating in its present state of comparative 
inutility and uncertainty, the cause of jealousy between the 
several states, and of mistrust and danger toward the general 
government! And should the attempt be seriously and for- 
cibly (for what but force could effect it?) persisted in, would 
not the inevitable result be rebellion and a new revolution? 

"The proposed appropriation to education is identified 
with the vital interests of every individual, without regard to 
party or sect, state, or section of country. It appeals most 
justly, and, wei'e the appeal duly felt, irresistibly, both to the 
benevolent feeling and to the selfish interest of each and of 
all our countrymen; the youth and adult, the wealthy and 
indigent, the stronger and gentler sex. Its anticipated 
blessings are not derived from the over-wrought aspirations 
of a sanguine enthusiasm. Its immediate benefits, great and 
various as they must be, would be indefinitely increased by 
their natural consequents. This great measure established 



LECTUKES ON EDUCATION. 185 

and supported by the highest constituted authorities, would 
give a pubhc aid and sanction to education, inestimable even 
as an example, imparting an impulse and energy to the peo- 
ple themselves, and encouraging their representatives in 
state, county, and town, to unite with them in furthering the 
general cause, by all needful contributions of time, labor, 
and funds. It would also prove an indissoluble bond of union, 
both between the citizens of each state, and between the 
different states, if not reconciling, at least antagonizing their 
conflicting interests. All the children of the states and ter- 
ritories of this vast republic, receiving their common share 
of the public property through the medium of the common 
schools, would learn fraternally to respect and esteem each 
other as fellows — fellow-beings and fellow-citizens; and 
would experience a personal interest, as well as filial regard 
for the security and prosperity of what they would then feel 
and know to be their commoyi country. 

"The manifest interest of the favored sons of fortune, 
requires that their less wealthy neighbors and countrymen 
should be well disposed, and well behaved; that their trades- 
men and workmen, or artisans, should be expert and trust- 
worthy; and that their own children should be preserved 
from the detrimental contact and collision of the uneducated, 
to which, if such exist, they must be constantly exposed. 
The useful education of all can alone effect these desirable 
ends. Besides, in this land, the feudal perpetuity of property 
by entail is extinct. In most sections, if not throughout the 
whole country, the greater part of the existing property has 
been transferred to, or produced by, its present transient 
owners, in the course of a single generation; while in the 
same brief space, the once wealthy families and individuals 
have been reduced in their pecuniary circumstances, in a 
corresponding proportion: and owing to the fluctuations of 
trade, increase of competition, and numberless other contin- 
gencies, the amount of private property must ever be varia- 
ble, and even its tenure uncertain. 

"The public lands and revenues, however, belong as much 
to the honest poor man, (poor, perhaps, because honest,) as 
24 



186 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

to the man of wealth, whether his weahh be derived from 
more successful industiy, or from fortunate or fraudulent 
speculation. The proposed appropriation would eventually 
secure to aZZ, the necessaries, the comforts, and conveniences 
of wholesome, mental and moral aliment; still leaving the 
extravagant luxuries, refinements, and superfluities, to the 
wealthy few. How deplorable is the condition of those who 
cannot cipher, write, or read; how greatly dependent are 
they on their friends; how easily deceived and duped by the 
unfriendly! How rarely have they, in after life, the oppor- 
tunity and disposition to acquire even the simplest elements 
of knowledge; many branches of which would be most suc- 
cessfully taught by means of public lectures, experiments, and 
demonstrations, and these might be attended with interest 
and advantage, by persons of mature age. Under the pro- 
posed plan, popukir libraries also, would doubtless be institu- 
ted in every county or district; and in both of these modes 
the adults, as well as the pupils, might acquire and improve 
a taste for letters and science, and partake of the pleasure 
and benefits consequent to their cultivation. 

"The self-taught and self-made men, do not generally arise 
from the ranks of the totally illiterate, but from those who 
have imbibed the rudimental aliments of instruction in their 
youth. Dr. Franklin left a legacy to institute an annual 
premium in the free school in Boston, out of gratitude to it 
as the original cause of his career of usefulness and honora- 
ble fame. 

"The object of 'the Pi'oposition,' is obviously not only to 
extend the influence of education, but also to elevate its cha- 
racter. Not only to elicit and cherish the latent germs of 
genius and talent, but also to awaken and enlighten the moral 
sensibilities; to implant a deep and firmly rooted conscien- 
tiousness, which shall not merely cause the observance and 
support of the laws of the country, but, by its innate force, 
create a rectitude of purpose, and energy of action, beyond 
and above the letter or the power of human laws. The 
present age is distinguished for its various benevolent and 
charitable institutions, among the foremost of which, rank 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 187 

those devoted to the cause of temperance. What an inesti- 
mably great and vahiable auxiUary to this and all the other 
measures of moral reformation, would be furnished by the 
proposed appropriation. In the primary schools, must the 
death blow of crime be struck; the anticipative faculties of 
the rising generation be guided and strengthened. There 
they may be taught that the undue indulgence of the appe- 
tites and passions, necessarily causes reaction on their abu- 
sers ; that to avoid misery they must avoid vice, and to avoid 
vice they must avoid its temptation. Even to the more sacred 
feelings of human nature, can a strong and additional ap- 
peal be made ; for to what, but to their ignorance, can be 
imputed the persecution and violence of the barbarous ages. 
Why, but for the enlightened spirit of the times, should those 
nations and sects, who once imbued their hands in each 
other's blood, now glory in the exercise of mutual forbear- 
ance and charity? — What more effective means, then, can 
be devised, in addition to the existing humane institutions, 
than the proposed appropriation, whereby extensively and 
permanently to promote peace on earth, and good will to 
man?" 



LECTURE V. 

PART III. 

SUBJECT DIVISION OF LABOR A3IONG TEACHERS. 

Thus have we given space for the author of the Pamphlet 
to defend his proposition at considerahle length. The sen- 
timents advanced, we consider, in the main, to he correct, 
and the arguments to be logical, and conclusive, and convin- 
cing. We have no hesitation in becoming indorsers to 
those sentiments and reasonings, although their author be 
unknown, and will adopt them as our own. 

In addition to the pi^oposition of the Pamphlet, M^hich 
only specifies a general appropriation of the public lands to 
the general purposes of education, we would submit other kin- 
dred propositions, which shall specify particularly the partic- 
ular manner in which they shall be appropriated, and the 
particular supervision which sha,ll be exercised over those 
funds, 

PROPOSITIONS. 

1. All the proceeds of the sales of public lands, which 
shall, according to the Pamphlet proposition, "be distributed 
annually among the several states, according to the ratio of 
their representation," shall be paid into the several state 
treasuries, and remain there, subject to be drawn only by 
an especial enactment of the Legislature of each state, in 
accordance with the voice of two-thirds of its members. 

2. A portion of. those funds shall, in the first place, be 
appropriated to erect and endow, at the capital of each 
state, two Institutions or Colleges for the education of all 
the Male and Female Professors, which shall be required to 
fill the several professorships in each of the County Institu- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 189 

lions throughout the state; and the necessary edifices shall 
further be erected, according to the model recommended in 
previous Lectures of tliis series. 

3. Those Institutions or Colleges shall be divided into 
twelve departments, each department of which shall con- 
stitute a distinct professorship; which professorships of each 
Institution, twelve in number, shall be filled by twelve 
Male and twelve Female Professors, appointed by the Legis- 
lature. 

4. Out of the public funds, distributed among the states 
for purposes of education, by the general government, shall 
be paid one thousand dollars per annum, as a salary to each 
of these professors; subject, howevei", to be refunded out of 
the receipts for tuition, whensoever they shall have been 
paid into the treasury of the Institutions. 

5. As indispensable prerequisites to admission into those 
Colleges, a person, in order to become a successful candidate, 
shall possess certain 7iatural qualifications for a Professor, 
and shall have gone through a regular and thorough course 
of science at an approved Institution. 

6. Upon admission into the College, each member shall 
become obligated to spend three years of intense study, in 
the acquisition of those branches of science which shall be 
appointed by the laws of the Institution, before he shall be 
permitted to graduate. 

7. Each Male member shall further become obligated, 
upon admission, to labor three hours each day upon the farm 
connected with the Institute, or in the Mechanical Depart- 
ment; and each Female Member shall be required to labor 
in a domestic workshop, where she shall spin, weave, and 
transact other domestic business for the preservation of 
health, as well as for a qualification to become a Professor 
in the County Institution. 

8. Each member shall, moreover, become obhgated to 
pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per week for board, 
and five dollars per quarter for tuition, for the liquidation of 
which, the proceeds of the labor of each shall be appropria- 
ted, so far as it shall avail to answer the purpose; and the 



190 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

remainder, if any, shall be paid into the treasury, quarterly, 
by each of the members, if they be able; but, if they be not 
able, the same shall be charged against them, in the books 
of the Institution, and shall be deducted out of their salaries, 
when they shall have entered upon the duties of a Professor 
in the County Institute ; which sums so deducted, together 
with the interest due at the time of deduction, shall, with 
the sums paid into the treasuries of the Institution, be refun- 
ded into the treasury of public deposits, in payment of sums 
drawn to pay the salaries of teachers, and to defray the ex- 
penses of the College. 

9. A Male Superintendent shall be appointed by the Legis- 
lature, by and with the advice and consent of the Governor, 
for the Male College, and a Female Superintendent for the 
Female College; whose duty it shall be to keep the accounts 
and manage all the financial concerns of the Institution — to 
draw upon the general school fund, in accordance with the 
provisions of an especial enactment of the Legislature, for t^e 
payment of the salaries of teachers, and for the liquidation 
of the current expenses of the Institution — to make sale of 
the proceeds of the labor performed, accredit the avails to 
the account of the persons performing that labor^ and 
refund the same in payment for drafts drawn on the treasury 
for the objects above specified — to draft bills against each 
member, quarterly, for the balance of board and tuition un- 
paid; and either collect the money, if they be able to pay, 
or else take their written obligations, payable with annual 
interest, out of the salaries which may become due for future 
services in the County Institutions — to collect those obliga- 
tions when due, and refund principal and interest into the 
treasury of public deposit — to report, quarterly, to the Sec- 
retary of State, the number of members, their literary profi- 
ciency, and the general condition of the Academic depart- 
ment; and to the Treasurer of State, an exact account of the 
pecuniary affairs of the Institution — the avails of the farm 
and the Mechanical department — the amount drawn from 
the treasury — the amount refunded — the means in posses- 
sion, in personal obligations, to liquidate the balance due on 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 191 

drafts, and the surplus, if any there he, over and above the 
amount of that balance. 

10. Each Superintendent shall be allowed a salary of fif- 
teen hundred dollars per annum, to be drawn from the treas>- 
ury, quarterly, and to be refunded from the surplus receipts, 
over and above the expenditures of the College, whenever 
those surplus funds can be turned into cash; and further, each 
Superintendent shall be required to give approved bonds for 
the taithful performance of his highly responsible duties, to 
the amount of forty thousand dollars. 

11. A Board of Examination shall be appointed by the 
Legislature for each College, composed of twelve Males and 
twelve Females; vphose duty it shall be, in conjunction with 
the Superintendent, to visit and examine the College of Pro- 
fessors, quarterly, to examine the books and credit the ac- 
counts of tiie Superintendent, and to report to the Legislature 
at each session. 

12. Two Colleges, the one for Males, and the other for 
Females, shall be founded at the city of Washington, upon 
an extensive scale; in which all the members of the several 
State Colleges shall spend one year, after they shall have 
graduated, honorably, from those Colleges, for the purpose 
of finishing their education, and in which they shall labor 
three hours per day, and into the treasuries of which they 
shall pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per week for 
board, and five dollars per quarter for tuition, in the manner 
before specified. 

13. Those two Colleges shall be under the supervision of 
a Superintendent, appointed by the House of Representa- 
tives, whose duties and salary shall be the same as those of 
the Superintendent in the State College. 

14. A joint Committee from both Houses of Congress, con- 
sisting of six members of the Senate and twelve of the House 
of Representatives, shall be delegated, annually, to examine 
the books and audit the accounts of the Superintendent, 
and to examine the members of the Colleges, and to grant 
them diplomas, testifying to their ability to discharge the 
duties of Professors in the various County Institutions, 



i9'2 LtCTUUES ON EDUCATION. 

15. Having received their diplomas, and the sanction of 
the highest constituted authorities of the nation, they shall 
return to their respective State Colleges, and there receive 
their appointment to the several County Institutions by the 
Legislature. 

16. All the funds, appropriated for purposes of education, 
which have not been expended in erecting and endowing 
the State Colleges, shall be divided among the several coun- 
ties, and paid into the county treasury, according to the num- 
ber of youth in the county. 

17. Twelve Commissioners shall bo elected by the suffra- 
ges of each county, who shall, when duly elected, be empow- 
ered to draw those funds from the treasury, and to invest 
them, either in their own county or in some other part of the 
country, in such works of public utility, as shall, after pay- 
ing all incidental expenses and repairs, be productive of ten 
per cent, per annum. 

18. For the purpose of preventing speculation and fraudu- 
lent dealing, those twelve Commissioners shall receive but 
two dollars per day and their necessary expenses, during a 
period sufficiently long to dispose of those funds; they shall 
never be permitted to invest any portion of those funds in 
any works of their own, or from, which they derive a,ny pecu- 
niary interest or emolument; and they shall give approved 
bonds for the faithful discharge of their duties, to double the 
amount of the funds which they shall invest. 

19. Tlie interest accruing from the investment of those 
funds shall be received by the Commissioners; and one-half 
of the yearly income shall be appropriated by them to erect 
suitable Academic edifices, procure books and apparatus, 
and the other half shall be held by them, subject to the order 
of the Male and Female Superintendents of each County 
Institution. 

20. For each Male and Female Institution there shall be a 
Male and Female Superintendent, appointed by the Legisla- 
ture, whose duty, like the Superintendents of the State and 
National Colleges of Professors, shall be, to keep the accounts 
and to manage the financial concerns of the Institution — to 



LECTUKKS ON EDUCATION. 193 

draw the half of the interest accruing from the public fund, 
which was reserved by the Commissioners for this purpose, 
and to expend the same — first, in assisting orphans and the 
children of poor parents, who have no means, independent 
of their labor, of supporting themselves and defraying the 
expenses of their Academic course — to divide the surplus, if 
there be any, after the above object shall have been accom- 
plished, among the remainder of the pupils, equally — to dis- 
pose of the products of the farm and the Mechanical depart- 
ment at public or private sale, and accredit the avails of 
the same to the account of those performing the labor, to 
be deducted out of their expenses for Board, Tuition and 
Clothing — to draft bills for the balance against each scholar, 
quarterly, and collect the same, cither in money from those 
who derive a benefit from the public fund, or else in flour, 
grain, vegetables, or money, from the parents of those, who 
do not receive a benefit from the public fund — out of those 
moneys, so collected, to supply the pupils with food and clo- 
thing, and to pay seven hundred dollars salary, per annum, 
to each Professor, deducting out of it, however, a dollar per 
week for the board of themselves, and a dollar per week for 
each member of their families, if any they have — to hold the 
surplus receipts, if any there be, subject to the order of the 
twelve Commissioners — to report, quarterly, to the Secre- 
tary of State, the number of pupils, their proficiency in sci- 
ence, and the general literary character of the Institation; 
and to the Treasurer of State, an exact account of the in- 
come and expenditures of the Institution, niidited by the 
twelve County Commissioners. 

21. Each Superintendent shall receive a salary of one 
thousand dollars per annum, and shall be required to give 
approved bonds to double the amount of money, with which 
he shall be intrusted, for the faithful discharge of the impor- 
tant duties of his station. 

22. Where the Professors graduate from the State Colle- 
ges, they shall there form a State Association of Professors, 
whose duty it shall be to correspond with the various County 
Institutions in the State — to delegate one of their number, 

25 



194 LECTUUES ON EDUCATION. 

quarterly, to represent each Institution in a General Assem- 
bly at the State College, where common stock shall be made 
of any new discoveries or improvements in the arts or sciences. 
23. When the Professors shall receive their diplomas from 
the Grand National College, they shall form themselves into 
a National Association, which shall be represented, yearly, 
at the National College, by three delegates, chosen and sent 
by each of the several State Associations, which Associa- 
tions shall become auxiliaries to the Grand National Asso- 
ciation. Their sessions shall continue one week, during 
which time, they shall receive condensed reports from the 
several Institutions throughout the Union, of the general 
condition of each Institution — of all the scientific discove- 
ries and inventions of genius, and where and by whom 
those discoveries and inventions were made. They shall 
decide upon the merit of new publications, and either appro- 
bate or disapprobate them. And they shall variegate and 
impart interest to their exercises, by occasionally lecturing 
upon important subjects in art and science. 

It may be considered somewhat singular and novel, that 
I should have given to the foregoing propositions' such a bold 
tone, and made them speak such an imperative language, as 
though they were a line of resolutions, drafted especially for 
legislative discussion and enactment. But my object was 
not, by any means, to dictate a form, or a "modus operandi," 
to the wisdom of legislators. I should not presume thus far. 
I should feel utterly incompetent to the performance of such 
a task, were it assigned to me. My object in clothing those 
propositions in the garb of such a phraseology, was merely to 
give my opinions in as comprehensive a view as possible, as 
to the general outlines of the manner in which the patronage 
of government should be applied to the improvement of 
schools, and schools be placed under the supervision of gov^ 
ernment; and to make out a system of safe and consistent 
operations. 

Now, could improvements in education, which those pjo- 
positions and others contemplate, be elfectcd, various and 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 195 

beneficial beyond conception, would be the results. The 
founding and endowment of State and National Colleges at 
the different capitals, according to the provisions of fore- 
going propositions, for the education of Professors, in studies 
and exercises preparatory to their profession, would not only 
be productive of a competency to discharge the duties of 
teacher, which can no where be found at present, but would 
bring those Professors into intimate communion and fellow- 
ship with some of the first and most talented minds in the na- 
tion. It is a known and an acknowledged fact, that men are 
so constituted, that they cannot but receive mental and moral 
impressions, and be influenced and biassed by their asso- 
ciates. Are they intimate with the groveling-minded? 
They are dragged down by that intimacy, and in turn, 
become groveling-minded. Are they, on the contrary, inti- 
mate with superior intellects? They become partakers, in 
a measure, of that same intellectual superiority, and are gra- 
dually transformed into the same likeness, almost feature 
for feature. We, therefore, draw the rational and logical 
inference, that the intimacy of Professors, for three or four 
years, with the greatest statesmen, the profoundest scholars, 
and the most exalted geniuses of the land, must have the 
tendency to promote their own exaltation, and ennoble their 
ideas, and induce them to set their standard high. Besides, 
they might listen to the important debates and deliberations 
of Legislatures and of Congress, and by three or four years' 
close attention, become well versed in state and national 
policies, and in the science of good government. Away 
from those halls of legislation, they might carry into allparts 
of this vast country a thorough knowledge of the principles 
of the constitution, and of the correct interpretation of those 
principles; and might, without becoming those pestiferous 
agents in the production of all mischief — HOT HEADEDj 
BIGOTED POLITICIANS— scatter, throughout the whole 
length and breadth of the land, the seeds o^ high-toned senti- 
ments of repnblicnnism, by instilling them into the minds of 
every child in the nation — by impressing deeply upon their 
memories, a correct idea of their political standing and 



196 liEGTURES ON EDUCATIOX. 

rights, and of their own personal influence in promoting the 
weal or the woe of their country. 

According to the theory of our propositions, that disquali- 
fication for the office of Teacher, which now prevails to such 
an extent, would be effectually prevented, since no Profes- 
sor could be admitted into the county Institute, except he 
should have a diploma from the general government, and no 
one could have a diploma except he should be qualified. 

By the practical operations of that theory, another evil 
would be prevented. It will be recollected that, in the 
Supplement to Lecture second, we affirmed and proved, by 
undeniable fact, that ^'•Sectarian prejudice and exclusiveness 
oppose a formidable barrier to improvements in present system,s 
of education, by preventing that union of design and of effort, 
which is 7iecessary, in order to effect such improvements.^^ But, 
so soon as schools shall be placed under the entire super- 
vision. ; f government, where they ought to be placed, such 
prejudice cuid exclusiveness will, if they shall longer exist, 
be powerless. For, Sectarianism will no longer be permitted 
to exert its withering and blighting influence over schools. 
But, all sects, and all parties will, alike, have a voice in 
their management, through the medium of their representa- 
tives in Legislatures, and in Congress, to whom the people 
delegate tlieir right to enact laws and to govern. 

Perhaps, however, some particular sect, party, or denomi- 
nation, religious or political, who, at present, cither directly 
or indirectly, exercise over institutions of learning, and 
through their medium, over public sentiment, a larger share 
of controlling influence, than they would, were there a com- 
munity of conti'ol equalized among the indiscriminate mass 
of voters — perhaps, I say, such a sect, party, or denomina- 
tion, if such an one exist, may see, or may imagine that they 
?ee, unnumbered and most appalling evils arising from this 
community of controlling influence. With deep concern 
and solicitude, they may fear lest the mass of the people 
should not possess so much wisdom and prudence, as they, 
nor be actuated by such pure principles and motives. They 
may affect to tremble, lest the pillars and keystone of the 



liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 197 

temple of virtue should be plucked away by the hands of a 
lawless, profane, and furious populace, and all that is honest, 
"lovely and of good report," be brought down, in fearful 
ruin, to the dust. They may affect to be alarmed at the pre- 
valence of infidel sentiments, and, as a legitimate conse- 
quence, the recurrence of the bloody and frightful scenes 
of the former French Revolution, when the fiends of the 
nethermost abyss seem to have been unchained, and to have 
held on earth the grand carnival and jubilee of the pit. 
Such solicitude is patriotic and commendable. It is matter 
of congratulation that our country is blessed with guardians 
of the public weal, eagle-eyed in discovering causes for 
alarm. In their deep concern, ardent affection is manifes- 
ted for the "DEAR PEOPLE"— an affection so ardent that, 
I doubt not, they would gladly bless the objects of their re- 
gards, by taking their inestimable rights and privileges into 
safe keeping, and RULING OVER them. For such affec- 
tionate solicitude, so manifested, they will doubtless receive 
from the "c/ecr people,'''' their due reward of thanks. Yes: 
they will doubtless receive as many thanks, as did the "HON- 
EST lAGO" from Othello, for whom he manifested a soli- 
citude so DISINTERESTED; or as many as did Judas Isca- 
riot when he kissed his Master in the Garden. Their prof- 
fered supervision and guardianship, over the public interests, 
weal, and virtue may, however, be declined by the ^^dear 
people;'''' for, in these days of enterprise and scientific illumi- 
nation, the common mass are, either in imagination, or in 
reality, becoming so much wiser than ages gone by, that 
they choose, whether it be presumption or not, to manage 
their own affairs, and govern themselves in their own way. 
And now, although deep solicitude may be manifested, lest 
they should, peradventure, misrule themselves, and misman- 
age the affairs of the nation, yet I see no alternative but 
silent acquiescence. For, as soon might the hurricane be 
stopped in its course by the bidding of an infant, or the wa- 
ters of the Amazon be rolled backward to the Andes, as the 
popular will be successfully resisted. For my own part, 
however, I apprehend no such consequences, as the alarmist 



198 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

would predict, from a perfect equalization of controlling in- 
fluence. With emotions of irrepressible joy, I hail the 
dawning of the day, when all aristocratic distinctions in soci- 
ety, which are created by zuealth, or lenrning^ or party, or 
SECT, shall be brought down to a level, by the resistless 
energies of a concentrated commonalty. In all ecclesiasti- 
cal, state, and educational matters, be the consequences 
what they may, I am FOR REPUBLICANISM— FOR A 
WHOLE REPUBLICANISM— and FOR NOTHING 
BUT REPUBLICANISM. 



LECTURE VI. 

SUBJECT TIIK AI'PllOPUI VTE ORDER OF STUDIES FRO.'M THE PRI- 

JVIARV TO THE .•METAPHYSICAL DEPARTMENT. 

The remark, that nothing is so important and so indispen- 
sable, to the successful management of institutions, and pro- 
secution of enterprises, as definite method In their ";?iof/?<5 opc- 
randi^^'' is fully justihed by all analogy. Close observation 
of the operations of cill mercantile, mechanical, and other 
establishments, warrant such a conclusion. Go where you 
will. Examine whatsoever transaction of human agency 
you please. And, by your investigations and inquiries, you 
will discover that this is the invariable result. Indeed, the 
concentrated experience of ages, proves that no business, no 
enterprise, no scheme whatever, either mechanical, agricultU' 
ral, professional, or political, can march forward, unimpeded, 
to successful results, without definite method, both in design, 
and in execution — method founded upon philosophical and 
common sense principles. If definite method, then, be con- 
sidered indispensably necessary in the projection, and prose- 
cution, and successful completion of mere business enterpri- 
ses, how much more necessary is it in the "modus operandi" 
of schools. If it be absent there, confusion, incompetency, 
and an entire faiilure to accomplish the great designs of edu- 
cation, must be the inevitable result. And it is absent 
there. Pass through the length and breadth of the nation. 
Look into every school. Observe the management. Take 
cognizance of the order of studies, and of the proficiency 
of pupils. And such will be the conclusion to which you 
will be impelled. No where will you discover any such 
thing as detinite method, in the appointment of studies, or in 
the multiform operations of the school — no, not even in tlie 



200 LrECTUKKS O.N EDUCATION. 

best regulated cind most popular, AAith the exception, per- 
haps, of some eight or ten. Throughout the land, and in 
every seminary of learning, both the choice and the order 
of studies are determined, rather by fancy, caprice, and a 
want of perseverance, than by judgment, experience, and 
definite law. The method of procedure is this: After the 
pupil has partially attained the rudiments of orthography 
and reading, he is permitted, either at his own option or 
that of the fond parent, who wishes to see him progressing 
rapidly, sometimes to study Grammar first, sometimes Geog- 
raphy, sometimes Arithmetic, sometimes the rudiments of 
the Latin or the French, and sometimes, indeed, two or three 
of those sciences at once; thus evincing as profound an 
ignorance of the philosophy and natural order of mental 
development, as the most illiterate Hottentot of South Af- 
rica. If the pupil, or the parent for the pupil, make choice 
of some one of the above sciences for his first object of 
attention, after learning the rudimental exercises of Read- 
ing and Spelling, what rule or motive determines his choice? 
Why is that particular science chosen in preference to any 
other? No rule or reason determines the selection. The 
prompting motive is, either the misjudging inclinations of the 
parent, or the changeling propensities of the child. In con- 
sequence, vast injuries are often sustained — injuries, which 
can never be remedied — injuries which result from misdirec- 
ted eflfort. Here is an illustration. The pupil, prompted 
by a desire to progress, obtains the consent of his parent, 
and commences the study of Arithmetic. But his mental 
faculties are, yet, in a great measure undeveloped and 
nerveless. They are not sufficiently matured to grapple 
even with the Multiplication Table ; much less to comprehend 
and solve questions, which require intense thought, and a ca- 
pacity for close and long continued investigation. The pu- 
pil, however, by tlie assistance of the Teacher, as well as 
the aid of scholars, more advanced than himself, proceeds 
onward, during the period of six months or a year, through 
Addition, Subtraction, and, perhaps, through Multiplication. 
But, when he arrives at Division, his pi'ogress is entirely 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 201 

interrupted. Insuperable difficulties are thrown in his path. 
No effort nor explanation on the part of the instructor, how- 
ever skillful he maybe in the communication of knowledge, 
can impart, to the immature understanding of the pupil, 
strength sufficient to grapple with and overcome those diffi- 
culties. After making a few ineffectual and powerless 
struggles to scale the barriers that intercept his progress, he 
becomes discouraged, loathes the detestable science that 
has baffled his efforts, and relinquishes it in disgust. 

The selection of another science is now made. But, un- 
happily, almost as inappropriately as before. Grammar is 
chosen. Its rules, definitions, and technicalities are, it is 
true, speedily treasured up in his memory. Yet, in the 
application of those rules, definitions, and technicalities to 
parsing, and to the grammatical construction and philoso- 
phy of language, difficulties and barriers rise up, in dread 
array, before him, equally as formidable and as insurmoun- 
table, as in the science of Arithmetic. Again, he becomes 
discouraged and disgusted. Again, he relinquishes the sci- 
ence, ere he has attained it, and assumes a new branch. 
Thus he changes, and thus are his efforts baffled at every 
change, until he has wasted four or five years of precious 
time, without deriving to himself material benefit. He ra- 
ther derives very material injury. The beauties of the sci- 
ences are not unfolded to his view, because he cannot com- 
prehend them. They are a mere "dead, unmeaning letter." 
No intellectual views are imparted — no bright intellectual 
prospects are opened, to animate and enrapture the mind, 
and impel the student onward with irrepressible ardor — 

" to climb the steep, 

" Where Fame's proud temple shines afar." 

In reality, he may be said to understand the sciences he has 
studied, no better than if he had never opened or read the 
title-page of the text-book which contains them. This want 
of proficiency makes him almost loathe the sight of a book, 
and, it is ten chances to one, if he do not renounce reading, 
and literary pursuits, altogether, as too insufferably irksome, 
to be tolerated. 
26 



202 IjEctuues on education. 

Besides, the student experiences an incalculable amount 
of injury, from the influence of this mutable course upon his 
general habits. He imperceptibly forms a character for 
indecision^which. is promoted by nothing, so much as by re- 
peated failures to accomplish, what we aUemj)t to accomplish. 
Those habits which are acquired in children, become deep 
rooted in the constitution, before the years of manhood 
arrive, and then no force can eradicate them, but Omnipo- 
tent force. If the child be undecided, the man will be 
more undecided. He will peisevere in nothing which he 
undertakes. Such habits of indecision constitute insupera- 
ble barriers to excellence in any business of life. The 
plans of such a character will be continually thwarted, and 
want of perseverance will, like the nightmare, render all his 
efforts powerless and inefficient. 

Often has it been my lot to hear a student, possessing the 
character above described, denominated by his teacher "a 
dull and indolent blockhead," because he did not compre- 
hend and accomplish the tasks which were assigned him. In 
a great majority of instances, however, very undeservedly 
has he been thus denominated, if we may be permitted to 
judge from the physiognomy of the youth. Any thing but 
dullness and indolence is exhibited in the expression of his 
countenance. I have seen students, who were denominated 
"dull and lazy blockheads," giving unequivocal evidences 
of the brightest genius, by the bounding buoyancy of their 
spirits, and by their wit in conversation, ready and spark- 
ling on all occasions. And, when I have witnessed such 
displays of buoyancy, wit, and animation, the question has 
forcibly suggested itself to my mind — how is it possible, that 
such a youth — one possessing such a fund of repartee, ready 
for use on all occasions — one apparently actuated, in all 
movements which are calculated to call it into exercise, by 
a spirit of enterprise — hdw is it possible, that such an youth 
should have acquired the reputation of being "a dull and 
indolent blockhead'''' in scholarship? How can it be possible 
that he should have been denominaf.-d such a "blockhead," 
when, to an observer, he exhibits far more natural brilliancy 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 203 

of mental power, than the student, who has, in the same 
school, and under the tuition of the same teacher, acquired 
the reputation of being a. good scholar. Since there appears 
to be no natural cause for the production of such an effect — 
since, upon ordinary principles of interpretation, the diffe- 
rence between the two is unaccountable — since, from the 
physiognomy and phrenolog}' of those who are thus contras- 
ted, the one who has acquired the reputation of being the 
duller, seems, in fact, to possess capacities for attainment 
and proficiency in science, decidedly the superior, what can 
constitute the difference? Why does the brighter natural 
genius acquire the reputation of being the duller scholar? 
By close investigation, I have been eible to find but one appo- 
site answer to these questions — to discover but one satisfac- 
tory solution for the mysteries of this singular phenomenon. 
Those answers and that solution are found alone in the want 
of dejinite method in the choice and order of studies^ which pre- 
vails to such an extent in schools. The youthful genius, 
just rising into notice, and, — if I may be allowed so bold a 
figure — scattering abroad the beams of a roseate morning, 
and shedding, upon the vision of his delighted parents, 
the rich promises of a brilliant meridian, enters the vestibule 
to the temple of knowledge, full of ambition to excel. Soon 
he acquires the rudiments of Orthography and Reading, and 
creates, in the bosoms of his instructor, his friends, and his 
parents, the expectation that he will be a brilliant student. 
But, as it is the acknowledged characteristic of genius, to be 
somewhat "fiery and irregular in all its motions," except it 
shall be curbed by wholesome restraints, the stripling, full of 
sublime anticipations, becomes impatient of the dull routine 
of Spelling and Reading, and longs to leave behind him 
the dim vestibule, and to be ushered, into the magnificent 
temple of knowledge. Applying to his parent, he gains per- 
mission. Forward he darts in his course, like the eagle* 
But, his unfledged and unpracticed pinions soon begin to 
tire and droop. Unrestrained by wholesome rules, and 
imagining himself an infant giant, in intellect, he grapples, 
perhaps, with the science of Arithmetic. Soon, however, he 



Ji04 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

finds it too incomprehensible for his limited understanding, 
and he is baffled and obstructed in his progress. He grap- 
ples with another science too abstruse for his comprehension, 
and is again baffled. Now, being thus permitted to grasp 
at too much, by those whose business it should be to regu- 
late his efforts, and, in consequence, failing in the attempt, 
he is, therefore, denominated "m(ioZen/," by the misjudging 
instructor, and the anxious parent. His failures are repea- 
ted. Severe reprimand follows failure. Unmerciful casti- 
gation succeeds reprimand. And, at length, the youth loses 
all ambition to excel, and becomes incurably disgusted with 
his books, his school, his teacher, and every thing apper- 
taining to them. But, pent up, like the earth's central fire, 
his irrepressible energies must find vent somewhere. In- 
stead, therefore, of emitting a lovely brilliancy, they become 
a volcano, and are expended in the production of immense 
mischief. The stripling, instead of maintaining a fixed posi- 
tion, like some splendid luminary in the intellectual firma- 
ment, shedding around him a steady and brilliant light, darts 
off, in an erratic course, like a comet, and is soon lost in 
blackness of darkness. 

To an unphilosophical and indefinite "modus operandi" 
of instruction, are such deleterious effects to be attributed, 
rather than to the stupidness and indolence of the pupil. 
Owing to a want of philosophical and definite method, effort 
is oftentimes utterly misapplied. By such misapplication, all 
exertion is rendered nugatory, and frequently worse than 
merely nugatory. For, not only is time wasted in profitless 
labor, but an incurable disgust is created, in the mind of the 
pupil, to ward the sciences; and he drags himself to his 
school and to his incomprehensible tasks, as unwillingly as a 
culprit goes to his prison-house, or "a fool to the correction 
of the stocks." 

But wei'e the order of studies invariably appointed, in 
siccordance with strict philosophical principles, and were the 
natural order of mental development consulted, in order to 
determine those principles, no such evil consequences would 
fee witnessed, as we have been considering. No such evil 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION". 'i05 

consequences would be witnessed, as may be seen in schools 
throughout the country. Study would be a pleasure^ rather 
than a drudgery. The bell, which announces the hour for 
the commencement of school, and which calls the stripling 
away from the bosom of home or the delights of play, would 
not then' sound as unwelcomely as a funeral knell, but would 
rather be hailed with emotions of gladness, as a messenger 
of welcome tidings. For, there is nothing in the acquisition 
of knowledge, merely in itself considered, which is repul- 
sive to youth. The stripling, on the contrary, hails, with 
irrepressible ecstasy, the day spring of science in his intel- 
lect. You will see his eye sparkle with ethereal fire, and 
the whole expression of his countenance indicate the thrill 
of pleasure, which pervades his soul at the conception of a 
new idea, the opening of a fresh intellectual prospect, or 
the waking up of a new emotion in the bosom. Yes: — An 
enthusiasm impels him onward in his scientific career, and 
attends all his researches and discoveries, which affects not 
the cooler temperament of age, and which, instead of need- 
ing the constant application of stimulus to keep it alive, 
needs rather to be repressed, lest it should impel the impetu- 
ous and ardent-souled youth to put forth exertions too great 
for his strength, and thus endanger his health and his life. 

To provide an antidote against the deleterious consequen- 
ces which, at present, result from indefinite method in the 
choice and order of studies, I propose, in the present and 
succeeding Lectures, to suggest an order of studies appro- 
priate for the attention of the student, throughout his Acade- 
mic course, from the Primary to the Metaphysical department 
. — an order in accordance with the order of mental develop^ 
ment, and founded, of course, upon the broad basis of correct 
philosophical principles. I design, also, to appoint the maii^ 
ner in which each science should be illustrated by the Pro- 
fessor, and studied by the pupil, and show the peculiar bene' 
fits of each, and their peculiar effects in the cultivation and 
expansion of the mind. It will by no means be consistent 
with the order, which I shall recommend, to pursue the course 
which is at present frequently pursued — to exercise those facf 



206 LECTURES ON EDUCATIOPf. 

ulties first, which are last developed, and those faculties last, 
which arejlrst developed, and so run counter to the immu- 
table laws of nature. I design rather to suggest a system of 
education, based upon those immutable laws, and shall en- 
deavor, by whatsoever light and illustration the Philosophy 
of the Human Understanding may throw upon the subject, 
to substantiate my every position. 

It was recommended in a former Lecture, that no child 
should be admitted into the County Institution under eight 
years of age. And these are my reasons for that recommen- 
dation. During the period of eight years, my impression is, 
that the physical, and mental, and moral powers of the 
child can be better trained, by the affectionate culture of 
the mother in the nursery, and in the domestic circle, than 
by the tuition of a Professor, though he be perfectly quali- 
fied for his station. True it is, indeed, that the child's facul- 
ties may not expand so rapidly, nor give the admiring pa- 
rent such evidences of precocious genius and talent, when 
nurtured, for three or four years, in the quiet retreats of the 
nursery, as when thrown into competition with a large class 
of animated, aspiring, ardent-souled children. But, for one, 
I am very far from considering it a desideratum, that the 
mental faculties should, in infancy, be expanded so rapidly, 
or that the child should exhibit such evidences of preco- 
cious genius and talent. Vast injury may be sustained by 
the subject, from a forced and an unnatural expansion of the 
mental powers in extreme youth. All the efforts of parents, 
which are put forth, in order to make their children intel- 
lectual prodigies in their infancy, are grossly misapplied. 
They sacrifice i\\e fruit,\n order to produce an earlier ex|>an- 
sion of the ^ottjcr. Such an influence resembles a /io^iecZ. It 
forces the plant to maturity, whose feebleness or early decay, 
must be proportioned to the unnatural rapidity of its 
growth, and the consequent want of symmetry in its parts. 

Over exertion, in mental exercises, in extreme youth, 
destroys the healthful equilibrium between the animal 
and intellectual natures, and, in proportion as tlie mind 
acquires vigor and thinks intensely, the body is enfeebled 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 207 

and sinks Under the crushing force of its action, as the frail 
car totters beneath the shock of heavy ordnance. But, the 
intellect, in such a case, eventually sympathizes with the 
animal nature. The mental action and the physical reac- 
tion being unequal, and the mind, finding her energies unsus- 
tained, becomes itself discouraged, and falls, at length, into 
despondency and imbecility. The flow of animal spirits — 
the fire and vigor of the imagination — the fullness and power 
of feeling — the comprehension and grasp of thought—the 
fire of the eye — the tones of the voice, and the electrical 
energy of utterance, all depend upon the healthful and vigo- 
rous tone of the animal system; and, by whatever means the 
body is unstrung, the spirit languishes. 

I have seen examples of precocious genius. Some were, 
considering their age, truly intellectual prodigies. While 
the germs of thought were merely budding in the minds of 
some children, they exhibited to the view of admiring parents, 
full blown and fully expanded blossoms, which gave fair pro- 
mises of abundant fruit. But, those blossoms soon faded. 
The flower suddenly drooped and withered, as if transferred, 
in cold December, from the hot-house to the snow-banks of 
Greenland. Whenever, therefore, I see the faculties of a 
child developing too early, and too rapidly, a feeling of deep 
melancholy comes over my spirit; for a strong presentiment 
whispers to my mind of disappointed hopes, weeping parents, 
and an early grave. 

Instead, therefore, of introducing the infant, at the age of 
three or four years, into the seminary where, if he begin 
somewhat early to exhibit signs of surpassing natural powers, 
he will be very likely to be urged forward in his scientific 
course, beyond his strength, he should be retained in the 
nursery and domestic circle, and there receive his first 
mental impressions and bias, from maternal instruction and 
discipline. 

The opposite extreme of neglect should, however, be stu- 
diously avoided. As soon as any one of the faculties begins 
to show signs of development — as soon as the infant germs of 
thought, and feeling, and passion, begin to give evidences of 



208 LECTURES ON EDUCATIOSf. 

Vegetation, so soon should they receive the watchful atten- 
tion of the cultivator; not so much for the purpose of urging 
forward their growth^ as to shield thenm from detrimental 
infliiences of weeds, Wind and weftther, and to train the 
scions in an appropriate direction* They need no hot-bed 
stimulants at this stage of their growth. For, more vigorous 
will they be, if they be left to vegetate under the genial 
influences of sun and rain, and if the tendrils of infant 
thought shall be made to receive a proper direction. 

"Just as the twig is bent, the tree 's incliii'tl," — 

though a trite and simple poetical paraphrase of Solomon's 
proverb — "Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he Isold he will not depart from it" — yet, it embodies 
a world of wisdom, and should be deeply and indelibly imprin- 
ted upon the heart of every mother. It comprehends, in one 
short line, all her duty to her offspring. 

If a plant or a tree is to be made, by the gardener or the 
cultivator, to assume a given shape or direction, he does not 
wait until it has attained a considerable size, and become 
stiffened in a particular position, contrary to that in which 
he would have it grow. For, in such a case, the force requi- 
red to change its direction is usually so great, as either to 
diminish its vigor and obstruct its growth very materially, or 
produce deformity and sometimes impair the very principle 
of life. The cultivator, on the contrar^^, commences his 
training with the scion or the earliest twig, and leads every 
tendril, as it germinates and shoots forth, into the course 
desired. From the culture of plants and trees, should the 
mother gather several valuable hints. Like the gardener, 
she should watch with unceasing vigilance, over the Jirst 
impressions, which are destined to form the basis of future 
character. In the very first moments of perception and of 
action, she should stand by her child. She should restrain 
his wayward propensities, before they ripen into confirmed 
habits — should teach him how to govern himself, before he 
becomes the slave of impulses — should endeavor to make the 
first impressions concerning manners, and conduct, wad princi- 
ples of action, derived from the examples he witnesses, and 



liBCTURES ON EDUCATION. % 209 

the conversation he hears, as pure as possible. She should 
not intermit her efforts for a single day — no — nor for a sin- 
gle hour. If she does, the shooting idea will, then, have 
assumed its form — the tendril feeling will, then, have taken 
its direction, and an increased, if not painful effort, will he 
necessary to alter it. 

Should the child not be required, until it arrive at the age 
of eight years, to go through a formal round of study in the 
nursery, it need not, nevertheless, be unoccupied. It can 
be constantly acquiring important knowledge, from all the 
multiform objects and events whir.h surround it. Before it, 
is unfolded the book of nature, written in characters so 
broad and lucid, that the child can peruse them and deci- 
pher their meaning, before it can articulate distinctly, or 
repeat the Alphabet. Around it is exhibited every variety 
of human condition and character, from the highest to the 
lowest — from the brightest to the darkest — from the lordly 
mansion, where wealth, plenteousness, and luxury reside, to 
the lowly hovel, where penury, want, and squalid wretched- 
ness have taken their abode — from the most brilliant exam- 
ples of piety, and virtue, and expansive benevolence, to 
the most disgusting specimens of graceless profanity, besot- 
ting debauchery and beastliness, and every species of dark- 
ling iniquity. With all these subjects of study and of inves- 
tigation before it, need the child be unoccupied, though he 
have no text-book of the sciences? Need he want employ- 
ment for three or four years? Certainly not. Here were 
matter enough, indeed, for the intensest thought and inves- 
tigation of the philosopher for ages — an inexhaustible fund of 
ideas, ever varying, and ever new. 

Into the midst of this world of subject-matter for thought, 
the mother can lead forth her child. At one time, she can 
give him a lesson on morals, and illustrate it, and impress it 
deeply and indelibly upon his memory, by pointing to living 
examples, which stand thick around her, over all the area of 
human life. At another time, she can give it a lesson on 
manners — at another, upon customs — at another, upon the 
diversities of taste — at another, upon Providence — at ano- 
27 



210 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ther, upon the works and wonders of creation. All of which 
lessons and subjects, she can so simplify and so illustrate by 
living, and moving, and breathing exemplifications, that the 
child cannot but learn, understand, and remember them. 
One lesson in morals, for instance, shall be that of intempe- 
rance, which shall be illustrated and impressed upon the 
memory of the child, by the example of the drunkard, wal- 
lowing, like a filthy swine, in the sinks of inebriation. Ano- 
ther lesson shall be debauchery, which shall be illustrated by 
the example of the debauchee, who, to drunkenness in its 
most disgusting form, vinites seduction, with all its hellish 
consequences. Another lesson shall be knavery, which shall 
be exemplified by the man who endeavors, systematically 
and with cool-blooded calculation, to wrong others, and to 
amass wealth at the expense of others' interests. Ano- 
ther lesson should be robbery, which should be illustrated by 
the thief, who stealthily commits depredations upon his 
neighbor's property, under the covert of the silence and dark- 
ness of the night, or the highwayman, who stops the defence- 
less traveler at mid-day, presents a pistol at his breast, and 
demands his money. Another lesson should be profanity, 
which should be illustrated by that poor, puny mortal, who, 
though he sometimes shakes with terror at the rustling of a 
leaf, exhibits, nevertheless, such incomprehensible fatuity 
and hardihood, that he hesitates not to spit defiance at the 
Thunderer, and to curse the Omnipotent, who rides on the 
wings of the storm-cloud, and brandishes the lightning! 
Thus, might she proceed onward, through the whole cata- 
logue of human iniquity and error, elucidating each lesson 
by living examples. Then, on all proper occasions, she 
might contrast those specimens of evil, with specimen's of 
good morals. She might contrast the temperate man with 
the intemperate — the honest man with the dishonest — the 
conscientious advocate and supporter of the laws, which pro- 
tect individual rights, with the thief and the robber — the 
pious man, who fears and reverences the Great Eternal, 
with the profane and the impious, who scoff at the exhibi- 
tions of his majesty, power, and excellence. In like man- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 211 

ner, might sne give lessons in manners, refined and genteel, 
or coarse and vulgar; — in customs, founded upon principles 
of propriety, or of impropriety; — in taste, cultivated and 
correct, or uncultivated and barbarous. All these lessons 
she might illustrate, and impress upon the memory, by living 
examples. And, think you that, with all these subjects of in- 
vestigation, and numberless others of a similar nature, spread 
out before the child, he would be unoccupied in the nursery? 
Think you, that three or four years of infancy, thus occupied, 
would be profitless? No — never. Far from it. Then, and 
there, would be laid, the broad basis, whereon the super- 
structure of character would he built, whose construction 
and completion would require the term of eternal ages. 
That superstructure would, doubtless, be glorious or infa- 
mous, in a great majority of instances, according to the care- 
fulness or negligence of the mother — according to the good 
or bad impressions received, during those three or four years, 
from surrounding objects and examples. 

In order to make the child's love of virtue and hatred of 
vice, in its thousand protean shapes, (as exhibited in the ex- 
amples we have been considering,) more deep and intense, 
and thus insure the erection, upon the basis of early impres- 
sions, of a glorious superstructure of character, the mother 
should often take the stripling by the hand, and lead him 
forth into the vast theatre of nature, filled with scenery end- 
lessly diversified, beautiful and wondrous. Beneath his feet 
would be spread, the green carpet of the earth. On the 
right hand and on the left, would rise the hills, and sink the 
valleys, and tower the mountains, and stretch the lawns and \ 
the woodlands. Health-inspiring breezes would fan his \ 
cheeks — brooks would murmur, flocks would bleat, and herds \ 
would low around him — and the songsters of nature would 
warble their sylvan strains amid the groves. Above his 
head, would be bended, the blue arch of the magnificent 
temple of the Universe, where, by day, in the far off oceans 
of ether, the sun rolls majestically, and sheds, upon the 
forests, and landscapes, and bowers of the green earth, his 
vivifying influences; — or, by night, the silver moon smiles 



212 liEGTURES ON EDUCATION. 

upon the repose of slumbering nature, and the glimmering 
stars peer out from their watch-towers in the sky. With 
astonishment and delight, the little stripling would cry out 
— "Mother, who made all these trees, and hills, and moun- 
tains, and valleys, and brooks, and sheep, and cattle, and 
pretty birds? What makes the grass, and leaves, and flow- 
ers grow, and look so green and beautiful, and smell so re- 
freshing? What is that great sun made of, which dazzles my 
eyes so, when I look at him; and where does he go, when he 
goes to bed at night? What makes the moon shiue so sweet- 
ly, when he is gone? And what are those little glimmering 
things away yonder, which are scattered so thickly, and look 
so much like little sparks of fire?" In answering these ques- 
tions, the mother should take occasion to waft the infant 
thought of the child upward, through the broad immensity 
of nature— "TO NATURE'S GOD." She would tell him 
how far surpassing the splendors of the sun, were the burn- 
ing glories of the topless throne. "There," she would say, 
"sits that mysterious and incomprehensible Being, who laid 
the foundations of the earth, and spread its green carpet, 
and, out of his inexhaustible store-houses, supplied it with all 
its amazing furniture of forests, and mountains, and rivers, 
and oceans. Yonder sparkling points are a vast assemblage 
of worlds piled upon worlds in infinite profusion — worlds, 
clothed with blossoms, and fruits, and vegetation, and inha- 
bited by rational and irrational animals, like this earth. 
These, too, are the workmanship of the Eternal. Without 
instruments, and without materials, he builded thiose count- 
less myriads of worlds, and suns, and sj-stems, which are scat- 
tered in endless perspective before the eye. He clothed 
them with forests and vegetation. He laid the solid base- 
ment of their mountains, and scooped out the unfathomed 
depths of their oceans. He called forth, from non-entity, 
an untold variety of brutes to roam through their woodlands, 
of fowls to wing their atmosphere, and of fishes to inhabit 
their rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. After the similitude of 
his likeness, he created rational intelligences, and placed 
them in the ever-blooming bowers of their Edens. He 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 213 

lighted up their suns 'by the breath of his nostrils,' and 
feeds, perpetually, those enormous seas of beaming glory." 

Being thus instructed, by his mother, and taught that this 
same Eternal, is his Father, in heaven; and, with pleasure, 
or with displeasure, looks upon all his actions — and, being 
encouraged and incited to deeds of virtue and morality, or 
discouraged and deterred from deeds of vice and infamy, by 
the examples which surround him; he lays the basis of cha- 
racter correctly — imbibes good habits — receives exalted im- 
pressions — and indulges noble trains of thought. Thus, are 
the seeds of amiability, and all the virtues, sown in his nature, 
which shall, doubtless, spring up and bear fruit, abundantly, 
in after life; and he is now qualified to pass from the care of 
the mother, to the care of the Professor, for the more thor- 
ough discipline and cultivation of the mental powers. 

1. At the age of eight years, the youth should be admitted 
into the Primary department of the Academic Institution, 
and should be committed to the sole control, supervision, 
and guardianship of the Professor in that department. 

Let it, however, be here premised, that it is of prime im- 
portance, that the Jirst impressions made upon the mind of 
the youth, at his introduction, should be pleasing, rather than 
repulsive. Every thing around him should wear an inviting 
aspect. Every thing should be attractive — particularly the 
Professor. He should not only possess all the requisite lite- 
rary qualifications — not only be thoroughly versed in gene- 
ral science, and in studies, particularly preparatory to his 
profession; but he should he peculiarly ^tteA, by his manners, 
dispositions, and methods of communicating instruction, to 
interest and win the affections of pupils. If he have a kind, 
amiable, and engaging expression of countenance, which 
is an unfailing index to the heart — if he possess suavity of 
manners, and a gentle, and affable, though dignified, deport- 
ment — if, in short, he exhibit a truly parental regard for 
the pupils committed to his care; he will be sure to win their 
warmest affection, and secure their child-like and unlimited 
confidence. The school-room will, then, be to them the 
loveliest and happiest spot in all the creation of God. 



214 LKCTURES ON EDtTCATIOX. 

The studies and exercises of the youth should be ren- 
dered as amusing — as little like a task, and as much like 
agreeable recreation, as possible. The celebrated Locke, 
holds, in substance, the following language upon this sub- 
ject. "Give me leave, here, to inculcate the lesson, that 
great care should be taken, that study be never made like a 
business, nor the pupil to look on it as a task. We naturally 
love liberty from our very cradles, and have, tlierefore, an 
aversion to many things, for no other reason than because 
they are enjoined upon us. I have always had a fancy, that 
learning might be made a play and a recreation to children; 
and, that they might be brought to desire to be taught, if if 
were proposed to them as a thing of honor, credit, delight, 
and recreation. That which confirms me in this opinion is, 
that amongst the Portuguese, it is so much a fashion and 
emulation, amongst their children, to learn to read and 
write, that tliey cannot hinder them from it: They will 
learn it, one from another, and are as intent on it, as if it 
were forbid them." Again, he says in another connection, 
"children should have nothing like serious work enjoined 
upon them; neither their minds nor their bodies will bear 
it. It injures their health; and, their being forced and tied 
down to their books, in an age at enmity with all such re- 
straint, has, I doubt not, been the reason, why a great many 
have hated books and learning all their lives after. It is 
like a surfeit, which leaves an aversion behind, not to be 
removed." 

Perhaps no philosopher, ancient or modern, more nar- 
rowly watched, more closely investigated, or more correctly 
analyzed and delineated the operations of the human mind, 
than did tlie celebrated Locke, as may be evinced by a 
reference to his admirable treatise upon the Human Under- 
standing. With whatsoever subject his master-intellect 
grappled, it comprehended, and many were the subjects of 
his attention. No man understood the workings of the pas- 
sions, the secret springs of human action, and the power of 
certain motives to produce certain impulses and influences, 
better than he did. Hi? opinions, therefore, upon tliissub- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 215 

ject as well as others, I consider, are entitled to great weight. 
They accord with observation, and with reason. Children, 
undoubtedly, must be pleased and amused with their exerci- 
ses, in order to receive instruction and profit. I would 
recommend, therefore, that all the pupils, during the six 
months, which they shall spend in the Primary department, 
shall be required to exercise their minds in the mere rudi- 
ments of knowledge, according to the easiest and most agree- 
able modes, which are, or can be devised. It is expected, 
as a matter of course, that the child will have acquired a 
knowledge of his Alpliabet, in the nursery, and a smattering 
of Orthography and Reading. He should still continue, in 
various ways, to practice these, though not with such system- 
atic precision, such formal nicety, as in the next depart- 
ment. It will be recollected, by a reference to a former 
Lecture, wherein was described the fixtures suitable for this 
department, that we recommended that the room should be 
hung around with a great variety of splendid engravings, 
illustrating different subjects and events recorded in history, 
calculated to convey, not only pleasure to the beholder, but 
fraught with a large fund of useful information. Each en- 
graving should be attended with a system of questions and 
answers, illustrative of the subjects portrayed. And these 
subjects might be so selected and so arranged in chronolo- 
gical oi'der, that they should present a connected chain of 
the most important particulars of human transaction, reach- 
ing from creation to the present — a grand, comprehensive, 
and systematic view of the general outlines of analogy. 
These engravings, so arranged, should be numbered and 
hung up around the apartment, according to their chronolo- 
gical order. This should be the method of instruction, 
which I would recommend, with regard to those subjects. 
The children should be required, by the Professor, to ar- 
range themselves upon the gallery. He should, then, take 
engraving number first, which might, for instance, represent 
the scenes immediately subsequent to the completion of the 
grand work of creation — the primal pair, clothed with spot- 
less and fearless innocence — Eden with its blooming bow- 



216 f.fiCTUKEiS ON EDUCATION. 

ers of evergreen, consummately beautiful, a spot more lovely 
than was ever pictured in the most brilliant effusions of poesy 
— the lion reposing with the lamb — the leopard lying down 
with the kid — and the serpent apparently destitute of venom, 
and stingless. He should elicit the closest attention of all 
the children by some winning persuasives, and should, then, 
allude to the various subjects, portrayed in the engraving, 
in their appropriate order, as to the time of their occurrence 
— point out the particulars, one by one, to the scholars — 
describe them minutely, and in the most simple and child- 
like style of phraseology, and endeavor to infix each subject 
in the memory, by some reflection or little anecdote, natu- 
rally suggested, which should be calculated to make a deep 
impression upon the tender mind. Having thus pointed 
out the prominent objects of the engraving, and elucidated 
them sufficiently, by familiar explanation and remark, the 
Professor should then, standing at a short distance before 
the class, ask the printed questions, and require the scholars 
to read the answers from the card, which should be printed 
in such large characters, that all can see them distinctly, 
while sitting or standing in their appointed position. Ha- 
ving read the lesson through, together, the Professor should 
require them to spell, simultaneously, all the longest and 
most difficult words in the lesson. By practicing two t>r 
three days upon this card, in this manner, the pupils will be 
able to read the answers fluently, to spell, readily, all the 
words, and, what is of great importance, they will have recei- 
ved, upon their every memory, a deep and abiding impres- 
sion of the ideas conveyed by the engraving. This should 
now be hung up in its place, and number second of the order 
should be taken, which might portray the woful transforma- 
tion of the former lovely scene — the horrible consequences 
of apostacy. The primeval pair, disrobed of their innocence, 
might be repi'esentcd as flying from Eden with tearful eye, 
blushing face, and fallen countenance, before the fierce 
brandishings of the sword of flame — the lion bristling up his 
^^^^^ggy mane, roaring, and springing upon the lamb — the 
leopard, in the savageness of his altered mien, tearing the 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 217 

defenceless kid, limb from limb — the clouds rolling in wrath- 
ful majesty, over the heavens, and shutting out the light of 
the sun — the fierce lightning glancing athvrartthe skies, and 
darting, bolt after bolt, to the accursed earth — and 

" Nature from her seat, 

"Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo 
« That all was lost." 

The principal features of this engraving should, as in a for- 
mer case, be particularly pointed at, one by one, and be illus- 
trated and explained by the Professor. The questions should 
also, as in a former instance, be asked from the card, and 
the answers be read by the pupils, until they shall, as before, 
have become perfectly familiar with the subjects, be able to 
spell all the difficult words, and to read the answers with 
fluency. This card should then be placed again in its posi- 
tion, and another be taken. Thus should all the engravings 
be studied in order, and thus might the pupils be not only 
amused, by the splendid pictures and by the illustrations and 
familiar anecdotes of the Professor, but might have all the 
principal events of both sacred and profane history deeply 
and indelibly imprinted upon their tender memories. 

In addition to those exercises, in reading and spelling, 
which should occupy about an hour, during each forenoon 
and afternoon, there should be others more lively in their 
character, which should require physical as well as mental 
exertion, and which should be adopted, for the sake of pre- 
serving health, of maintaining a proper equilibrium be- 
tween the animal and intellectual natures, and of making 
"the mental action and the physical reaction equal." 

One of those more active exercises should be marching 
upon the lines drawn along the sides and across the ends of 
the room. Some lively tune should be adapted to the varia- 
tions of the Multiplication Table, and this should be sung 
by the whole choir of pupils, as they march, in order to regu- 
late their steps, and make their movements and their recita- 
tions simultaneous. By this exercise, so well calculated to 
promote cheerfulness, to exhilarate the spirits, and make 
them elastic and buoyant, and to expand the chest and lungs, 
28 



218 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and consequently, to promote health, the children will not 
only he much delighted, hut will, in a short time, acquire 
the Multiplication Tahlc. 

Another of those exercises, which require physical action, 
should he certain evolutions, performed around the orhits of 
the various planets, which compose the solar system, drawn 
circularly from the center of the floor, outward — from the 
Sun to Mercury, from Mercury to Venus, from Venus to the 
Earth, and so on, outward, to the orbit of Ilcrschel; the dis- 
tance of each, from the others, being graduated according 
to their real distances from each other, in the heavens. If 
there should bo space sufficient, there might be included, 
the erratic orbit of the Comet, thus completing the solar 
system. On each of those orbits, might be placed a pupil, 
who should represent the planet of that particular orbit, and 
be called by its name. At a signal, given by the Professor, 
these planets should commence their revolutions around the 
Sun in the center, and should i-egulate the rapidity or slow- 
ness of their movements, according to the rapidity or slow- 
ness of the planets, which they severally represent; and the 
secondaries or moons should also commence their revolutions 
around their primaries. The whirl of Mercury around the Sun 
should be exceedingly rapid, and oixtward from that, should 
the planets move slower and slower, as they recede from the 
impulse of the great central attraction, until Herschcl, the 
outermost planet of the system, should scarcely appear to 
move at all; for, while Mercury performs his revolution 
around the Sun in three months, according to our computa- 
tion of time, Herschcl performs his revolution and completes 
his year only once in eighty-three and a half of our years. 
The Comet, in its approaclies toward the Sun, should move 
exceedingly slow, while without the orbit of Herschel, but 
should quicken its motions, as it crosses orbit after orbit, 
until it slmll rush almost with the velocity of light, in its 
flight towards that great luminary, making a short and quick 
evolution half around it, within the orbit of Mercury; and 
then darting away, and crossing orbit after orbit, until it 
has passed the outermost boundary of the solar system, mo- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 219 

ving slower and slower during its absence of scores of years 
or centuries, until it shall become almost like mass of inertia, 
gradually and imperceptibly turning about and approaching 
the Sun, in the same manner, and in the same path as be- 
fore. All these evolutions of the planets, which are thus 
represented by the pupils, should be, at the same time, 
explained and illustrated by the Professor, together with the 
various phenomena connected with themselves and with 
their movements. Thus, would the pupils not only attain 
a rudimental knowledge of the science of Astronomy, and, 
at the same time, be educating their physical energies, but 
they would be amused and delighted, and the tediousness 
and dullness of the common, monotonous round of school ex- 
ercises would be prevented. One hour should be allotted 
for these and similar exercises, which would, perhaps, be as 
much time, as could be profitably spent, during each fore- 
noon and afternoon, in performing the duties of the Acade- 
mic department; for, mental exertion, continued too long 
without interval, must, inevitably and invariably, produce 
satiety, disgust, and a certain kind of intellectual prostra- 
tion, which is very detrimental to the student, and very ma- 
terially retards his proficiency. 

The Professor should now repair with his class to the 
Gymnasium, where an hour should be spent as agreeably, 
and, at the same time, as instructively as possible, in the va- 
rious exercises of the play-grounds, wliich shall be calcula- 
ted to produce a healthful flow of animal spirits. Here the 
pupils should be left to follow the bent of their own incli- 
nation in the choice of their recreations, and the Professor 
should only be presenf to encourage their innocent sports — 
to preserve perfect harmony, and administer perfect justice, 
in case any slight diflerences should arise, as often do in 
play — to restrain any one, who is disposed, from a supera- 
bounding flow of spirits, to play too violently; and, when the 
pupils are tired, to relate to them, beneatli the boughs of 
some shady tree, various anecdotes and stories, for their 
amusement and instruction. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Thus far, have we described the studies and exercises 
appropriate to this class, and deUneated the principal fea- 
tures of the method of management which should be adopted, 
in this department; which method, if adopted, would make 
the recitation room like a palace in the estimation of the 
pupils, and the Gymnasium like a terrestrial paradise. 

It will be seen, that we have incorporated, into our plan 
or method, only a few of the outlines of the present Infant 
or Primary school system. We consider it by no means a 
correct system. We consider many of its (principal features 
altogether erroneous. We are, for instance, opposed, con- 
scientiously, to the introduction of pupils into the Primary 
department of the Institution, before they are eight years 
old, for the reasons which were given, at length, at the com- 
mencement of this Lecture. And, we are also, as conscien- 
tiously opposed to that system, which would give to merely 
religious exercises, such an undue prominency in education, 
as does the present system, as though religion were a mere 
science, and could be acquired like the otheT sciences. Espe- 
cially are wc thus opposed, when we know, that, not only 
the ostensible, but, indeed, the professed object of its advo- 
cates is, to instill into the mind of the child a certain set of 
doctrines, as often sectarian, as otherwise, which shall com- 
pletely forestall judgment and reason in their favor, be they 
correct or not — which shall incorporate them almost with 
the very essence of mind, and make their influence like a 
'^second nature." Let me not, however, be misunderstood, nor 
be misrepresented. I here utterly disclaim all alliance with 
infidels or amalgamation with them, in their objections and 
their impious opposition to pure Christianity. Its principles 
challenge universal attention. They are worthy of univer- 
sal acceptance. Young and old, high and low, rich and 
poor, should, willingly and joyfully, place themselves under 
their benign influences. But, the question occurs to my 
mind, with great force, whether Christianity, or her dearest 
interests, be subserved, by giving religious exercises such a 
conspicuous, and, as I conceive, such an undue prominency 
in education, as is given to them, in the Infant schools of the 



LECTURES OX EDUCATION. 221 

present day? Is not a needless prejudice thereby excited 
in the minds of infidels, against all the operations of benevo- 
lence and philanthropy? Is it not wrongs decidedly wrong, to 
forestall the immature judgment of the infant, and bias it in 
favor of any theory of mere doctrines and dogmas? For, if 
it be not wroyig, then would the Papist be right in stamping 
the principles of his creed upon the infant mind — the Ma- 
hometan his — the Brahmin his — and thus would each sect 
and denomination beget its own likeness. Besides, by 
giving religious exercises such an undue prominency in edu- 
cation, young Pharisees would be nurtured, who would evince 
all the bloated pride and intolerant bigotry of the Jewish 
Pharisees, who made broad their phylacteries, and boasted 
of their intimate knowledge of religion from their very in- 
fancy. Yet, against what class of men did the benevolent 
Prince of Peace utter such pointed reproofs and such fearful 
anathemas? 

But, religious and moral impressions ought, however, by no 
means, to be neglected. I have no fellowship, whatever, 
with that darksome creed, which denies the existence of 
Deity — inscribes — '''■Annihilation'''' — upon the portals of the 
tomb — and proclaims that ^'■death is an eternal sleep.''"' Nor, 
have I any fellowship with that other creed, which declares, 
that "the Bible," although its authenticity be supported by 
tenfold the evidence which exists in support of the authen- 
ticity of any other book, "is, nevertheless, a cunningly devi- 
sed fable of priestcraft," — that "Jesus Christ is an impos- 
tor," — and that his followers and disciples are a rabble of 
deluded fanatics." Nor have I any fellowship with the sen- 
timent, that advises the cultivator of the youthful mind, 
scrupulously, to abstain from any attempt, at proper oppor- 
tunities and under proper circumstances, to make impres- 
sions upon the intellect and the heart of the child, of reli- 
gious and moral truth. Fai', from my mind, be the pro- 
foundly impious thought. What! Shall we attempt to 
erase from the mind of the child, all ideas of the Being, who 
made, and who sustains him, and, within the boundaries of 
whose dominion, he must necessarily be included, unless he 



j^2 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

could go beyond the boundaries of non-entity? Shall we, 
with most sacrilegious effort, attempt to erase all the princi- 
ples of nioi-al obligation from the soul — thus cut loose the 
only moorings, which enchain it to the throne of the Eter- 
nal, and send it afloat, everlastingly, amid the storms, and 
billows, and darkness, of the wild ocean of contingency, 
without harbor or anchorage? Or, shall we not rather, on 
all proper occasions, endeavor to inculcate grateful ideas of 
"our Father in Heaven" — to strengthen the bonds of moral 
obligation — to exhibit, lucidly and familiarly, the evidences, 
which prove the authenticity of the Bible — to impress its 
simplest, most unsophisticated truths upon the mind — to 
point the sinner to "the Lamb of God, who takes away the 
sins of the v^^orld," and dress vice in his most haggard defor- 
mity, and virtue in her most unearthly and attractive loveli- 
ness? All this might be done, without making religion a 
science — be done, too, with infinitely better effect than if it 
were made a science. Yes: The Professor might, morning 
and night, lead his class to the throne of grace, and, while 
he should there address to the Supreme, united thanks for 
his goodness, and united supplications for the pardon of sin, 
in consequence of an atonement, they would respond their 
hearty — Amm. In addition to the performance of this duty, 
the Professor might improve all favorable opportunities, for 
suggesting moral reflections, arising, naturally^ from some 
subject of science, which might there be the subject of 
attention and remark. Further than this, however, religion 
should not, as I conceive, be amalgamated with education, 
during the exercises of the week. But, the Lord's day 
should be solely consecrated to religious services. The 
Professor should assemble his class, as usual, in the recita- 
tion-room, and should there institute such exercises, as shall 
be most appropriately calculated to allure the thoughts from 
earth to heaven — from sin to holiness — from the world to 
God. 

Thus, have the outlines of an appropriate "modus ope- 
randi" for the Primary department been sketched. Many 
more useful hints might have been suggested, had we had 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 223 

room, within our prescribed limits; but, for want thereof, we 
must defer them, and pass on to the Spelling and Reading 
department. 

2. Six months after their admission into the Institution, 
pupils should be introduced into department number third, 
which is devoted, mainly, to Reading and Spelling. Al- 
though these branches have, indeed, been already the sub- 
jects of partial attention, yet, they have not been studied 
scientifically^ and systematically^ as is now to be recommended. 
As one essential prerequisite necessary to accomplish the 
design, for which this department was instituted, and to 
make perfectly good Spellers and Readers, there should be 
a Professor appointed, who should not only possess extensive 
general knowledge of the sciences, but who should, in par- 
ticular, be an accurate^ accomplished^ andjlncnt reader. 

There should be cards, for the pupils, instead of books, 
containing either short stories and anecdotes, or else a sys- 
tematic connection of subjects in general and particular his- 
tory, written in a style, natural, easy, and flowing, and 
adapted, peculiarly, to the comprehension of the pupils, for 
whose use they are intended. Much judgment and practi- 
cal experience Avill be required, in the author or compiler 
of these cards, for none but such a person would understand 
how to adapt his ideas and expressions to the comprehen- 
sion of those, for whom he writes. The lessons upon those 
cards should be printed in characters so large and fair, as 
to be legible at a small distance, but need not, as in a former 
case, be arranged in the foi'm of questions and answers; for, 
the object is not, now, so much the acquisition of ideas, as 
of a correct style of reading; although, in order to effect 
this, it is necessary that the pupil should understand, per- 
fectly, what he attempts to peruse, as no man can read cor- 
rectly^ unless he reads under standingly. 

For the exercises of reading and spelling, the pupils 
should be arranged, by the order of the Professor, behind 
the desks, whose construction and form were appointed in a 
former Lecture.* The Professor should assume his station, 

*Vi[le page 99. 



234 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

at a suitable distance in front of the class, take one of the 
cards in his hand, and demand, and gain the undivided atten- 
tion of every pupil in the class. He should then read a sen- 
tence from the card, carefully observing the rising and falling 
inflections of the voice, which thesense requires; the proper 
accents, emphases, tones, cadences, and pauses, and all the 
other minute particulars, which are indispensable in reading. 
These particulars he should point out to the scholars, and 
explain and illustrate their propriety, and appoint certain 
immutable and common-sense rules for their observance. 
The pupils should, then, be required, one by one, to read 
that sentence, in routine, and to endeavor to imitate his own 
manner, as nearly as possible. He should, then, point out 
the particular failures of each, correct them, by example, 
and then require them to read it in routine again. Having 
thus perused the sentence two or three times, they will be 
enabled to read it tolerably connect. Another sentence 
should then be read and explained, in a similar manner, by 
the Professor, and be echoed by the class. Thus, should an 
hour be spent, every half day, in this critical exercise. By 
so doing, every pupil of ordinary capacit}', would, in the 
course of six months, make astonishing proficiency in the 
art, and acquire the theory of reading to perfection, and be 
enabled, by practice upon the principles of that theory, to 
attain an excellence in the art, of which we can, at present, 
form but a faint conception. 

There should be another set of cards, which should con- 
tain spelling lessons, and form a compilation of all the words 
in common use, together with correct rules for pronuncia- 
tion. Upon these lessons, the pupils should practice half an 
hour, each forenoon and afternoon, and, by so doing, they 
will not only acquire a large fund of words for future use, 
but correct rules of accent, and pronunciation, and the vari- 
ous sounds and powers of letters. 

If this routine of exercises be, in a measure, rather dull 
and spiritless, it can be agreeably variegated, by various ev- 
olutions in marching — by singing the Multiplication Table 
to some lively tunc — and by other amusing and instructive 
m 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 225 

exercises of a similar character, in the rudiments of Gram- 
mar, Geography, and Arithmetic. Having spent half an 
hour in such a manner, the class should then repair to the 
Gymnasium, and there spend an hour in the exercises, of 
which we have already given a description. 

As it is of prime importance, that the pupils, in every in- 
stitution of learning, should be well governed, as well as 
educated — as, indeed, a good education cannot, possibly, be 
attained, without good government — it may be well for us to 
bestow a few remarks upon the subject, before we close this 
Lecture. 

The Professor, in each department, should draft a few 
plain, simple, and comprehensive rules, for the internal regu- 
lation of his own particular department — rules, which should 
be founded, evidently, upon the fitness of things, and the 
propriety of which, every pupil should be able to see at a 
glance, and seeing, should be constrained to acknowledge. 
These rules, when drafted, should be read to the class, their 
propriety and necessity explained and enforced, by the Pro- 
fessor, and then should they be hung up in some conspicu- 
ous situation, where they can be seen by the whole school, 
and can be referred to, at a glance, in any case of neces- 
sity. No violation or infraction of those rules should ever 
pass by, unnoticed, whether that violation or infraction be 
designed or accidental. They should be like Ihe decrees 
of the Medes and Persians, which alter not. If these laws 
be, at any time, broken, or their authority be disregarded 
and set at naught, as the case may be, the utmost judg- 
ment, coolness, discretion, and kindness, should be mingled 
with an inflexible determination, on the part of the Profes- 
sor, to enforce the statutes, and maintain the proper dignity 
of the Institution, as well as of his own office. A formal 
court of inquiry should be instituted — witnesses, if there 
be any, should be called forth to testify, either for or 
against the criminated, and to testify without bias, preju- 
dice, or partiality — and the utmost fairness, and justice, and 
moderation, should characterize the whole trial. If, after 
closest investigation, the decision, in the mind of the judge, 
29 



226 I.ECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

or the Professor, be, that the arrested is falsely criminated, 
he should be candidly and honorably acquitted. If he be 
found to have transgressed an obvious and positive law, 
but if, at the same time, it appear, that the transgression 
was unintentional, committed from the impulses of the mo- 
ment, the criminal should be kindly and affectionately war- 
ned, by the judge, to resist the unhappy influence of all such 
impulses, and be exhorted to the most rigid circumspec- 
tion. If it, however, clearly appear, upon trial and impar- 
tial investigation, that the criminated did, in reality, trans- 
gress a known and obvious law, and, that he, coolly, delibe- 
rately, and, from the impulse of a premeditated design, 
transgressed that law, lie should be considered a proper sub- 
ject for a reprimand, before his class, which should be most 
solemnly, and, at the same time, most affectionately admin- 
istered, by the Professor. If he be unequivocally penitent 
and humble, under the infliction of this penalty, and shall 
make suitable confession, he should be restored to the favor 
of the judge, and to his place in the class. But, if, after his 
guilt has been clearly proven — ^if,^ after it appear evident 
and undeniable, that his transgression of a known law, was 
premeditated and willful — and, finally, if, after being repri- 
manded before his class, in a solemn, impressive, and affec- 
tionate manner, by the Professor, he still exhibit evidences 
of impenitence and unbending obstinacy — he should be sent 
to the dungeon of the Institution. Immediately thereafter, 
notice should be handed to each of the Professors of the 
other departments, summoning them to appear, at an ap- 
pointed hour, in the great hall of the institution, to transact 
business of immense importance to the welfare -of the pupils. 
After being convened in such an associated capacity, the 
criminal should be brought forth from his prison-house, and 
ushered into the presence of this august and superior tribu- 
nal, consisting of a vast collection of students, and thirteen 
associate judges or Professors. Here the witnesses should 
again be called to the stand to testify — the Professor should 
describe the obstinacy and impenitence, with which the 
criminal received his firet reprimand — the thirteen judges, iu 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 



327 



their associated capacity, should, then, in a solemn manner, 
give their decision against the criminal, at the bar; and one 
of their number should be delegated to administer another 
reprimand, exhibiting to his view, in glowing colors, and to 
the view of the whole congregated court, all the heinous- 
ness of his offence, and all its aggravated and aggravating 
circumstaBces. If, under the administration of this public 
reproof, he manifest deep contrition, and beg pardon for his 
crime, with its attendant provocations and aggravations, he 
should be formally discharged by the court, and be restored 
to his station, after a solemn charge to avoid forever after, 
with rigid circumspection, the causes which would lead to 
such deep degradation. But, if, after all this coolness and 
forbearance of procedure, he should, as is not probable, be 
still stubborn and relentless, the tribunal should, then, as a 
dernier resort, pass the decree, that the criminal be castiga- 
ted until his proud temper shall bend, and he submit, quiet- 
ly, and unmurmuringly, to the authority of the Institution. 
By such a method of procedure, that Institution would be 
kept in perfect order, from the key-stone to the foundation — 
every Professor would be respected, feared, and loved; and 
he would be able, on all occasions, to command the most 
perfect attention of his class. 



LECTURE VII. 

SUBJECT THE APPROPRIATE ORDER OF STUDIES FROM THE PRI- 
MARY TO THE METAPHYS/CAIi DEPARTMENT. 

By reference to the preceding Lecture, it will be percei- 
ved, that most of ics pages are filled up with the discussion 
and settlement of certain pi-eliminaries, upon which it seem- 
ed both appropriate and necessary to remark somewhat 
voluminously, in order to a perfect understanding and devel- 
opment of the principles of our theory. We traced the in- 
tellectual progress of the young immortal, from the very first 
dawnings of thought, intelligence, and reason, to the ninth 
year of his age — appointed the kind and order of studies and 
mental exercises, in connection with a physical education, 
which we considered, from close investigation, and long ex- 
perience, to be the most proper — and explained the genial 
influence, which that kind and order of studies and mental 
exercises would have upon the development, expansion, and 
culture of the physical, intellectual, and moral powers. We 
led the pupil onward, through the first, or Primary, and the 
third, or Spelling and Reading, departments of the Institu- 
tion. And, now, in pursuance of our plan, we design to 
introduce him, at the age of nine, into the fourth, or the 
Geographical and Historical department. 

To subserve the purposes of comprehensiveness and per- 
spicuity, it may be well, as we have come, in our progress, 
to the sciences, to specify and arrange, in logical order, at 
the head of our remarks upon the studies, which are appoin- 
ted for each department, the topical subjects of discussion. 
We should do this, also, for the reason, that our limits are 
so circumscribed, that we shall be obliged to be as concise 
as possible. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 229 

We design, then, to show, why Geography and History 
should take the precedence, of all the other sciences, in the 
order of studies — why they should be studied in connection 
— how they should be studied and explained — and the pecu- 
liar influence which they are calculated to exert upon the 
student. 

1. Geography and History should take the preeedence, of all 
other sciences, in the order of studies — they should take this pre- 
cedence — INVARIABLY. Philosophy, logic, reason, and 
common sense, substantiate this proposition. In order to 
determine, with accuracy, what branches of science should 
occupy the attention of the pupil, at the commencement of 
his course, we should consult the operations of naUire, and 
the regular and invariable order of mental development. 
Yea, we should go farther back — we should consult the 
model of the Great Architect, wbo built this complicated 
and truly wonderful machine of matter and mind united, 
in order that we may act understandingly, upon His plan, 
in our efforts to regulate that machine, and develop its 
hidden energies. What, then, seems to have been the mo- 
del — what the plan of the Great Architect? Of this, we 
can know nothing, except from a minute examination of the 
machine itself. By such an examination, we perceive, that 
the mind, for instance, exhibits, when sufficiently developed, 
a variety of capacities, or faculties, or modes of existence, 
which philosoplicrs denominate by different names, such as 
Memory, Fancy, Understanding, Reason, Judgment, and 
Will. The child, when born, exhibits none of those facul- 
ties, or rather exhibits them, if at all, in an extremely slight 
and almost imperceptible degree. They are, in point of 
fact, it is true, in existence, so soon as the child or the form- 
ing foetus begins to exist; for, I do not subscribe to that 
creed of some old schoolmen and philosophers, which asserts 
that mind is not instate, but only produced by the impress of 
external objects, acting upon a certain indefinable substra- 
tum, or intellectual retina. The moment the man begins to 
exist in the forming child, that moment the essence, which 
we call mind, begins to exist in embryo — that moment, all 



230 T.TICTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the faculties, which constitute the mind, hegin to exist, in 
embryo — that moment, all the elements which make the 
man, begin to exist in embryo. As the child grows up to 
maturity, the faculties of the mind are gradually developed, 
and, one after another, make their appearance, according 
to an invariable law. The Memory is the first capacity of 
the intellect, which exhibits to the observer, signs of exis- 
tence. And, herein is admirably shown, the wisdom, fore- 
sight, and providence of the Great Architect. In creating 
that immaterial, thinking essence, which is capable of origi- 
nating an almost endless multiplicity of ideas, as well as 
trains and associations of ideas, he provided that capacious 
intellectual store-house, the Memory^ for the reception or 
storage of those ideas, and imparted to it the power of indefi- 
nite expansion — an expansion which should always be pro- 
portionate to the power applied to expand it. The wise 
husbandman gathers hints from this and other exhibitions of 
divine skill, and builds his barns, and constructs his grana- 
ries, before the ripened crop is ready for harvest. 

As Memory is ihcjirst faculty of the mind, which is devel- 
oped, so also, is it the first which is imjjrovable and expandi- 
ble. This assertion will be abundantly proven by close 
observation. Long before the Judgment begins perceptibly 
to discriminate, or Fancy to soar aloft in its flights, or Rea- 
son to investigate, or Understanding to perceive, Memory 
begins to expand and to be retentive. If, then, it be obvi- 
ously the first faculty which is developed, and the first which 
is improvable and expandible, it ougnt, certainly, first to be 
exercised. Having discovered the design of the Great Ar- 
chitect, we should be guided by it, and act upon it. We 
should, like the wise husbandman, prepare our barns and 
our granaries, before we gather the harvest — should fit up 
the store-house of ideas, before ideas themselves shall have 
been generated. For this purpose, we have appointed, that 
^'•Geography and History shall take the precedence of all the 
other sciences,'''' because they, and they alo7ic, of all the scien- 
ces, exercise the Memory, without exercising, in any con- 
siderable degree, the other faculties of the mind; for, in 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 231 

their acquisition, no flight of Fancy is required, nor maturity 
of Judgment, nor vigor of Reason, nor strength of Under- 
standing, as do the other branches. It is simply the engra- 
ving of certain geographical featui'es and outlines upon the 
tablets of the Memory, and the accumulation of a multitude 
of facts in the store-house of thought, for future discrimina- 
tion, arrangement, and use. Were this order invariably 
followed — an order so consonant with the natural order of 
mental development — we should not, as now, hear so much 
complaint against "dull and indolent blockheads," in schol- 
arship. For, the violation of this philosophical order of stu- 
dies, is the grand procuring cause, in ninety-nine cases out 
of a hundred, of all the dullness and indolence in scholar- 
ship, which is so bitterly complained of. Its violation or in- 
version, is like learning Orthography before the Alphabet, 
or Reading before Orthography, or like learning or forcing 
an infant to walk, before he has attained sufticient strength 
to sustain his weight. Pupils should, therefore, as is very 
obvious, be never permitted to study any other sciences, at 
the commencement of their course, than those which exer- 
cise the Memory — than Geography and History. 

2. These tzvo sciences should be studied in the same depart- 
ment^ and in connection zcith each other, because the intimate 
and almost indissoluble affinity, which exists between them, 
seems to demand it. It should be an invariable rule — a 
rule founded, evidently, upon common-sense principles — to 
study those sciences together, which seem to be help-meets 
to each other, and which, M'hen subjects of mutual investiga- 
tion, are elucidators of each other. For this reason, and in 
accordance with this rule. Geography and History should 
be studied in connection with each other, because, if sepa- 
rated, a clear, full, and correct knowledge could be attained 
of neither. Of what consequence would mere Geography 
be without History? Of what consequence would it be, for 
the pupil to store his Memory with all the principal oceans, 
seas, lakes, and rivers — empires, kingdoms, states, counties, 
and towns — and their relative position upon the globe, with 
regard to each other, provided that he should nc\'cr conic to 



232 LECTUUES ON EDUCATION. 

the knowledge of the innumerable events of remarkable 
interest, wlucli had, in all the past ages of the world, been 
occurring, in and around all those places, whose location, 
and latitude, and longitude, he had learned from his Atlas? 
If, in Ancient Geography, for instance, he should find Baby- 
lon on the plains of Shinar, Jerusalem in Asia Minor, Tyre 
upon the banks of the Great Sefi, Palmyra in the Desert, 
Athens and Thebes in the Southern part of Europe, he 
would, if he possessed a spark of curiosity, in his bosom, be 
anxious to know what events, if any, had rendered them con- 
spicuous. And so "rice rersa." Of what consequence would 
it be for the pupil to store his Memory with a confused mass 
of historic matter, provided tliat he possessed no adequate 
or rational idea of the form, and dimensions of the globe, 
nor of the location of the spot, where each event of history 
transpired? If he read of tlie foundation of Babylon upon 
the plains of Shinar, by Nimrod, its wall of amazing strength, 
its unrivalled power and grandeur, its downfall and desola- 
tion, and the difficulty of ascertaining the precise spot, where 
it once towered, the pride and glory of kingdoms — or, if he 
read of Jerusalem and its temple, once the wonder of the 
world, and all its bright, or dark, or bloody scenes — or, if he 
read of the fleets, and naval exploits, and maritime glory of 
Tyre — or of the magnificent ruins of Palmyra — or of Ath- 
ens, the great metropolis of ancient refinement and learning 
— or of Thebes, with her hundred brazen gates — he would 
be anxious to know their various locations, and their relative 
distances from each other, and from himself, as well as the 
face of the country, soil, productions, and natural curiosities, 
which surrounded them. Geography and History should, 
therefore, be studied in connection. The features of some 
given section of countrj' — its mountains, its bodies of water, 
its rivers, its territorial divisions and subdivisions, should 
first be deeply impressed upon the pupil's Memory. The 
History of that section should, then, be studied, from its 
commencement, during whicli study, continual reference 
could be made to the precise location and geographical fea- 
tures of the places where the events transpired. Herein, is 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 233 

contained the chief benefit of those two sciences, indepen- 
dent of that discipline and invigoration of the Memory, which 
is produced by their acquisition. 

3. The sciences of Geography and History should he acquired 
by a system of familiar lecturing and explanation, on the part 
of the Professor, conjoined with intense study on the part of the 
pupils. By reference to the fixtures of department number 
fourth, described in a previous Lecture,* it will be seen, 
that they were arranged upon an inclined plane, constructed 
at one side, across which, the benches and desks were con- 
structed diagonally, from each side to the center aisle, in such 
a manner, that the pupils could sit or stand, facing the desk of 
the Lecturer or Professor, which desk occupied a central po- 
sition, upon an elevated platform, directly in front of the 
class. Here, the Professor should now take his station, sur- 
rounded, according to the description of the fixtures, with 
Maps of all kinds and of all dimensions, from the largest 
Maps of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, down to the 
smallest Maps of the smallest states; and with globes, qua- 
drants, and other artificials, to assist in explanation. The 
first object of attention should be, the attainment of the 
prominent and radical geographical principles. These 
should be illustrated, by the Professor, with the Globe. 
With it, he should explain the diurnal revolution of the 
earth, which causes day and night — the annual revolution, 
which completes our year, and which produces the varia- 
tions of the seasons — the equinoxes^ and their causes — the 
zones, meridians, parallels of latitude and longitude, and 
all the other grand outlines of Geography. When these 
are once deeply and indelibly impressed upon the Memory 
of every member in the class, so that each can answer, read- 
ily and unhesitatingly, any question that can be proposed j 
with reference to them, another step should then be taken. 
The Professor should hang up, before the class, a large 
Map of the two hemispheres, by which, together with the 
assistance of the terrestrial globe, he should delineate 

*Vide Lecture III, page 100. 
30 



234 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and classify all the principal features of the earth. He 
should, according to the operations of some system, which he 
should explain to the pupils, group the divisions and subdi- 
visions in one class — the mountains in another — the large 
bodies of water in another — the rivers in another — the isl- 
ands in another, and the cities and villages in another. The 
Professor should then refer, for instance, to the group of 
mountains-^notice each individual of that group in its ap- 
propriate order, and make some familiar remark, or relate 
some striking anecdote, illustrative of its history, and calcu- 
lated to infix the subject upon the recollection. He should 
then repeat the name of each individual of the group, and 
the pupils should all be required to respond their names 
after the Professor. Thus should they continue, until the 
whole group is perfectly learned, and thus should they pro- 
ceed through every group, until the whole map of the world 
is learned, and its every feature and outline imprinted, in 
systematic order, upon the Memory. 

Having completed this general survey, some quarter of 
the earth — Europe, for instance — should next be made the 
subject of attention. Its boundaries, together with the 
boundaries of all its Empires, Kingdoms, States, Duchies, 
and Principalities, should first be sketched upon the Black- 
board and explained, first by the Professor, and afterwards, 
by some eight or ten of the class, in routine, until a perfect 
idea of their form and boundaries and dimensions shall have 
been attained. Afterward, each division should be taken 
up in some appointed routine — its features be classified into 
groups — these groups be sketched, first by the Professor, and 
afterward by the pupils, upon the Blackboard — each indi- 
vidual of the group be illustrated by the relation of some his- 
toric fact, or the description of some natural curiosity — and 
the whole be learned after the manner, in which it was re- 
commended, that the groups, upon the map of the world, 
should be learned — by mutual explanation and response. 
In short, without being needlessly prolix, in detail, according 
to this order and method of mutual instruction, should all 
the divisions and subdivisions of the globe be studied and 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 235 

learned. By such a course, not only can a knowledge of 
the geographical features of the world be attained far more 
speedy and perfect, than by any other course, but an inde- 
scribable pleasure will be imparted to the delighted pupils, 
by these exercises. In them, there is nothing like the painful 
drudgery of that dull, spiritless routine of study, which, at 
present, obtains, universally, in our schools; but amusement 
is so combined with instruction, and the spirits of pupils are 
thereby kept in such a flow of exhilaration, that the dullest 
must prefer these exercises to all the delights of play. This 
I assert from experience. 

Having attained as perfect a knowledge of Geography as 
possible, and laid the whole science up in the Memory, in a 
connected, perceptible chain, that science should, then, be 
applied to History, and these should be studied in connec- 
tion. A text-book of the latter science should be compiled, 
purposely arranged for the class, and composed of all the 
prominent facts of history, from creation to the present, in 
chronological order. This text-book should, for the sake of 
convenience, be divided into chapters or lessons. The first 
of these lessons should be taken up, explained and enforced 
by the Professor, and the various places, where the events 
occurred, which are recorded, should be pointed out upon 
the map. The pupils should then commit the lesson to mem- 
ory, and repeat it, making continual reference to Geogra- 
phy, as occasion might require. Thus, should History be 
studied; and the march of armies, the location of battle- 
fields, and the theaters, whereon were enacted, all the bright 
and the bloody scenes of analogy, should be described upon 
the map. And, by so doing, this class would, in one year 
from the time of their introduction into the department, not 
only acquire the sciences of Geography and History, and 
attain a clear, connected, intellectual view of the whole 
area, over which they had passed; but they would strengthen 
the powers and enlarge tlie capacities of the Memory vastly, 
and store it with an immense fund of fact and matter for 
thought, rcllcrtion, and comparison. 



236 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

4. The peculiar injluence of those branches npon the mind 
will not only produce an eyilargement of viezcs, and a just con- 
ception of the poxuer, resources^ and general productiveness of the 
world we live in, but zvill teach the pupil to discriminate between 
virtue and vice — between what is noble and exalted, and what is 
mean and contemptible in general character; and, induce the 
student to love that which is really excellent, and to abhor that 
which is really odious. Perhaps I cannot better express my 
sentiments upon this subject, than by quoting the remarks of 
the celebrated Mrs. Chapone: 

"To all the deluding enchantments of the world, we should 
oppose a voice that shall make itself heard amid the confu- 
sion of dangerous opinions, and disperse all these erroneous 
prejudices. Youth require a faithful and constant monitor 
or advocate, if I may use the expression, to plead the cause 
of truth, honesty, and reason; to point out the mistakes that 
prevail in the common language of the world; and to lay be- 
fore them, certain rules whereby they discern them. But, 
who shall this monitor be? The master who has the care of 
their education? And shall he make set lessons on purpose 
to instruct them upon this head? At the very name of les- 
sons they take the alarm, keep themselves upon their guard, 
and shut their ears to all he can say. To avoid this, we 
should give them masters, who are liable to no suspicion or 
distrust; we must carry them back into other countries and 
other times, and ojjpose the false principles and bad exam- 
ples, which mislead the majority of mankind, by the opinions 
and examples of the great men of antiquity. How different 
from the taste of the present day are the instances we meet 
with in ancient history, where we see dictators and consuls 
taken from the plough! How low in appearance! Yet, 
those hands, grown hard by laboring in the field, supported 
the tottering state, and saved the commonwealth. Far from 
solicitously endeavoring to grow rich, they refused the gold 
that was offered them, and found it more giatifying to 
command those who were rich, than to possess riches them- 
selves. 



LECTUUES ON EDUCATION. 237 

"History, when properly taught, becomes a school of moral- 
ity to all mankind. It condemns vice, tears off the mask 
from pretended virtues, exposes popular errors and prejudi- 
ces, dispels the delusive charms of riches and vain pomp, 
which dazzle the imagination, and shows, by a thousand ex- 
amples, more effectual than any reasoning, that nothing is 
great or commendable but honor and probity. The esteem 
and admiration, which the most corrupt cannot refuse to the 
great and good actions recorded in history, confirms the 
important truth, tl^.at virtue is man's real good, and alone 
renders him truly great and valuable. The majority of the 
most famous conquerors, they will Ihid considered as public 
calamities, as the enemies of mankind, and the plunderers 
of nations, who, hurried on by a blind and restless ambi- 
tion, spread desolation from country to country, and like an 
inundation or a fire, ravage all before them. 

"The principal advantage of history is to preserve and 
invigorate those sentiments of probity and integrity, which 
^we bring into the world ; and if we have deviated from them, 
to draw us back by degrees, and rekindle in us those pre- 
cious sparks, by frequent examples of virtue. A master, 
well skilled in directing the genius, which is his chief duty, 
will omit no opportunity of instilling into his scholars the 
principles of honor and of equity, and of exciting in them an 
ardent love of virtue and abhorrence of vice. Being, as yet, 
tender and tractable, and corruption not having taken deep 
root in their minds, truth more easily finds admittance and 
fixes its abode there, if at all assisted by the wise reflection 
and the reasonable counsels of the tutor. 

"When, on every point of history read to children, or at 
least, on the brightest and most important, they are asked 
their opinion, and desired to point out whatever is beauti- 
ful, great and commendable, or, the contrary, they will sel- 
dom fail to answer justly and rationally, or to pass a sound 
and equitable judgment on whatever is proposed to them. 
This answer, this judgment, as I have already said, are in 
them, the voice of nature and of reason, and cannot be sus- 
pected, because not suggested. This, too, becomes in them, 



238 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

a rule of good taste and discrimination, with respect to solid 
glory and true greatness. When they read of a Rcgulus 
exposing himself to the most cruel torments, rather than 
break his word; a Cyrus and Scipio giving public examples 
of continence and wisdom; all the ancient Romans, so illus- 
trious and so generally esteemed, leading a frugal and sober 
life; and on the other hand meet with actions of treachery, 
debauchery, dissoluteness, or avarice, in great and consid- 
erable persons; they hesitate not a moment, to pronounce in 
favor of virtue." 

Having acquired a perfect knowledge of the sciences of 
Geography and History, the pupil should, at the age of ten, 
be introduced into department number fifth, or the Writing, 
Mapping, Painting, Designing, and Engraving department. 
The first objects of attention, in this department, should be Pen- 
mnnship and Mapping — the second, Painting and Designing — 
the third, Engraving. 

For the sake of arrangement and perspicuity, we will 
state the several topics of remark, which suggest themselves 
under the head of this department, and, in so doing, will 
show why children sliould not, before the age often, attempt 
to learn Penmanship or any other kindred branch — why 
they should learn it between the ages of ten and eleven, 
after leaving the Geographical and Historical, and before 
entering upon the Grammatical and Rhetorical department- 
why the pupil should make these branches exchisive objects 
of his attention, while he is learning them — and the method 
of procedure during the acquisition of the first, second, and 
third objects of attention, as before specified. 

1. Pupils should not, before they are ten years of age, attempt 
to acquire the branches taught in department number fifth, be- 
cause their hands are not large enough, before that period, to 
grasp the pen or to hold it correctly. If permitted to write 
sooner, the scholar is very apt to acquire bad habits of hold- 
ing the pen, which it is next to an impossibility to correct in 
after life, and the consequent habit of scribbling almost ille- 
gibly. Besides, the pupil's taste and judgment are not, be- 
fore this, sufliciently matured to prompt the formation of let- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 239 

ters after a correct and elegant model, or to know when they 
arc thus formed. And, by writing while the taste and judg- 
ment are immature, and writing, too, without beauty, ele- 
gance, or even legibility, habits of negligence and careless- 
ness are imbibed, which almost invariably prevent the stu- 
dent from ever becoming an adept in Penmanship. This 
is one prominent reason why there are so few good wri- 
ters. 

2. Pupils should learn Penmanship and the other kindred 
branches, betzoeen the ages of ten and eleven, after leaving the Ge- 
ographical and Historical, and before entering the Grammatical 
and Rhetorical department, because their hands will then have 
attained a sufficient growth to grcisp the pen, and hold it cor- 
rectly, and because, such will be the nature of the exerci- 
ses in the succeeding, or sixth department, that the pupils 
will be required to write compositions in connection with 
them, and should therefore understand Penmanship. 

3. Pupils should, zohile learning Penmanship, Mapping, Paint' 
ing. Designing, and the principles of Engraving, make them 
EXCLUSIVE objects of their attention, in consonance with the 
whole scope of our theory — in consonance with the common 
sense principle, that no man can do two things at one and 
the same time — that no student can divide his attention be- 
tween a variety of sciences, and make proficiency. 

A fairer and better style of Penmanship can, under the 
tuition of a competent Professor, be acquired in a single 
zoeek, when the attention of both teacher and pupil are exclu- 
sively confined to it, than can be acquired in a zvhole year, 
amid the interruptions, multiplicity of pursuits, and want of 
attention, which now prevail, so extensively, in schools. 
The truth of this assertion, I have tested by experience; and 
it has also been tested, I doubt not, by thousands of teachers 
in the Union. 

4. A few remarks zoill now be made, suggesting the outlines of 
the manner in zvhich the branches of this department should be 
taught. The Professor should not only be a perfectly good 
Penman, Mapper, Painter, Designer, and Engraver, him- 
self, but he should possess the happy faculty of communica- 



240 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ting his knowledge to others, in an extraordinary degree. 
Having arranged the class at the tables, which, according 
to the description of the fixtures, in another place, were to 
be constructed around the room, in one or two rows, as ne- 
cessity might demand, and one portion of them furnished 
with quills, inkstands, sand-boxes, folders, and other neces- 
sary appendages of an cscritoir — having, I say, arranged the 
class in order at that portion of the tables, which is fitted for 
Penmanship, the Professor should first give the pupils lessons 
upon the proper method of holding the pen. These lessons 
should be continued for several days; the scholars being, at 
the same time, permitted to follow their own inclination in 
making marks or cutting flourishes upon paper, unconfined 
by any rules, in order that they may become familiar, in a 
measure, with the use of the pen, and acquire an easy habit 
of holding it. After this object shall have been accomplish- 
ed, some simple lesson should be given, and all the mem- 
bers be required, simultaneously, to practice upon the same. 
The Professor should watch them narrowly, correct prompt- 
ly whatever may be erroneous, in the formation of the ap- 
pointed characters, or in the manner of holding the pen, 
give credit and commendation {or any specimen of extraor- 
dinary excellence, and so stimulate them onward, until they 
shall have perfected the first lesson. Another lesson should 
then be given, and the same supervision be exercised by the 
Professor, until it shall have been perfected like the former — 
and then another — and another — and so on, until the class 
shall have acquired, within the space of four months, by 
practicing upon the lessons an hour each forenoon and after- 
noon, a handsome, eas}^, and flowing style of Penmanship. 

The other remaining hour, allotted for each forenoon and 
afternoon exercise, should be spent in learning the principles 
of Mapping, from familiar lectures and explanations, and 
from practice. At that portion of the tables, furnished with 
projecting scales, squares, pencils, pentagraphs, and other 
appropriate instruments, should the class be ari'anged, and 
should first be taught to draw the mere boundaries, and, as 
it were, the skeleton of countries; — afterward to fill up with 



LECTURJIS ON EDUCATION. 241 

the prominent features of Geography — and finally learn to 
project all the different divisions and subdivisions of the 
globe, upon a correct and definite scale. Thus, by practi- 
cing Penmanship and Mapping, alternately, for four months, 
the class will have attained a thorough knowledge of the 
ground principles of each branch, and be able to execute 
a handsome specimen of writing, and a correct and beautiful 
map. 

At the end of four months, the class should commence 
Painting and Designing. They should now take their sta- 
tions at that portion of the tables, which is furnished with 
brushes, pencils, crayons, paints, et cetera, and should first 
be taught to sketch some, simple, flower — afterwards, the 
principles of perspective — then, imitation of the pictures, 
which hang around the room, which should be selections 
from the first productions, in painting, of the Grecian, Ro- 
man, Italian, French, and English schools — and, finally, por- 
traits of living persons, and the projection of landscape 
views. This should occupy the pupils' attention for an hour 
and a half each forenoon and afternoon, and the remaining 
half hour should be spent either in designing some fancy 
piece, according to the laws of perspective previously learn- 
ed, or else abroad, in the field, with the Professor, in taking 
sketches of various scenery, and learning the principles and 
the rules, by which the designer is governed, in taking those 
sketches. In the acquisition and perfection of these two 
branches, the class will not, with all the light they have 
upon the subject, spend more than six months. 

During the remaining two months of the year, the class 
should turn their whole attention to Engraving; first upon 
wood, in rude sketches, then upon stone, afterwards upon 
lead and copper, and finally, upon steel. This will be time 
sufficient to gain a thorough knowledge of the principles of 
the art, upon which the student may afterward practice, as 
he obtains leisure, and engrave his own landscape sketches. 

To the person who may, peradventure, object to this course 
of study, as it has a bewitching tendency, and is calculated 
to turn off the attention of the student, and give him a dis- 
31 



2-i2 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

taste for the more solid branches, I would simply answer, 
that it might, and undoubtedly would, under the auspices 
of a lax and indefinite '''•modus operandi'''' of instruction; but 
would have no such permanent influence in an institution, 
where the course and order of studies are appointed by laws 
as stern, inflexible, and unalterable, as the laws of the Medes 
and the Persians. 

After a pleasing intermission of brain-lahor — if I may be 
allowed the expression — for one year, the students will, at 
the age of eleven, be introduced into the Grammatical and 
Rhetorical department, and will come, with renewed and 
vastly increased mental vigor and perception, to the study of 
the sciences. 

Under the head of this department, I propose the follow- 
ing arrangement of subject matter for discussion. I shall 
endeavor to show — why Grammar and Rhetoric should be 
conjoined in their acquisition — why they should be studied 
at this stage of the pupil's scientific progression, rather than 
any other — show the manner, in which they should be stu- 
died — and what particular effect they ai^e calculated to have 
upon the cultivation, expansion, and perfection of the human 
mind. 

1. Grammar and Rhetoric should ever he conjoined in a sys- 
tematic course of study, because they are closely allied, being 
twin-sisters, as it were ; — indeed. Rhetoric is but little more 
than the perfection and consummation of Grammar. Both, 
alike, teach the art of framing written language, and con- 
structing sentences. The one teaches us to form sentences 
grammatically, and the other to form them rhetorically — the 
former correctly, and the latter elegantly. They should, 
therefore, it is evident, be studied in connection with each 
other. 

2. Grammar and Rhetoric should he studied at this stage of 
the pupiVs progression, in preference to any other science, be- 
cause they not only continue, like Geography and History, 
to exercise the Memory, but, unlike all the other sciences, 
they commence the proper discipline of Judgment, Reason, 
and Understanding — of Judgment and Understanding in a 



LECTURES ON EDUCA.TION. *243 

greater, and Reason in a lesser, and all in an appropriate de- 
gree. These faculties of the mind, have, by this time, become 
sufficiently developed to grapple with the sciences of Gram- 
mar and Rhetoric, both successfully and profitably, but, per- 
haps, with no sciences, more abstruse and difficult than these. 
From these facts, then, if they be admitted or proven, we 
derive a conclusive and a philosophical reason, why Gram- 
mar and Rhetoric should be studied at this stage of the 
child's progression, in preference to any of the other sci- 
ences. 

3. The manner, in which these branches should he studied, 
zoill now be made the subject of remark. As in the Geograph- 
ical and Historical department, the pupils should be arran- 
ged, by the Professor, according to the appointed order of 
fixtures, and before them he should take his stand. Some 
chart of "Grammar simplified," projected on so large a 
scale, as to contain all the different parts of speech, together 
with their definitions, in characters so large as to be legible 
at the distance of fifteen feet, should be unrolled before the 
class, be minutely explained by familiar lecturing, and then 
be repeated b}^ the Professor, and responded by the class. 
After the parts of speech shall, by this process, have been 
perfectly attained, another chart should be unrolled before 
the class, containing a synopsis of the verbs, and their vari- 
ations through all the modifications of number, person, mode, 
and tense, which should be explained, and learned, after the 
same process. In like manner should charts of rules for 
parsing and their exceptions, and a more minute elucidation 
of each part of speech, separately, be made the subjects of 
attention and of acquisition. When the Grammar shall 
thus have been perfectly acquired, in theory, it should be 
reduced to practice, and applied to parsing and to gram- 
matical construction. All the light, which books throw upon 
the science, should now be made the subject of the mutual 
investigations of both teacher, and pupil, in connection with 
critical exercises in grammatical analysis. These exercises 
in Grammar should occupy an hour each half day. The 
remaining hour, allotted for Academic duties, should be oc- 



244 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

cupied in similar exercises in Rhetoric ; first by means of 
charts containing general principles, and then by means of 
books, and all the light which authors of celebrity throw 
upon the science. The theory of those two sciences being 
perfectly attained, there should then be exercises in the cor- 
rection of false grammar, by applying to its correction the 
rules of that theory. There should, also, be exercises in the 
formation of sentences and in composition, as well as a very 
critical grammatical and rhetorical analysis of the most cel- 
ebrated authors, ancient and modern, in order to discover 
the beauties and elegancies, as well as the deformities and 
inaccuracies of their style. By such a process of study, du- 
ring the period of a year, a perfect knowledge must be acqui- 
red of the principles of the two sciences — a knowledge more 
perfect than could be acquired, as schools are at present 
conducted, in three or four years of tedious application. 

4. We shall nozo notice the particular effect^ which the critical 
study of Grammar and Rhetoric are calculated to have in the 
cultivation^ expansion, and perfection of the human mind. 
Having come to this stage of his progression, in the onward 
march of intellectual attainment, the pupil will have acqui- 
red, not only many ideas from the course of his studies, but 
many, also, from the impressions of surrounding objects, 
which come within the scope of personal observation. 
These ideas may be, as it were, crowded together into the 
store-house of intelligence in a mass, without order or regu- 
larity. Now, the legitimate effect of the thorough acquisi- 
tion of those two sciences is, if I may so speak, to enter into 
that store-house of thought, amidst that indiscriminate and 
undistinguished mass of ideas and perceptions — assort and 
classify them, according to their several afiinities to each 
other, and arrange them there, in neat and perspicuous 
order, ready, like well arranged furniture, for use on all oc- 
casions, and contributing, like such furniture, to ornament 
and grace the mental apartment. Or, in other words, the 
faculties of Judgment and Understanding are so exercised 
and disciplined by the grammatical and rhetorical construc- 
tion of ideas into sentences, which require close and discrim- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. Q45 

inate thinking, and also by the critical examination of the 
style of authors, in order to refine the taste and make the 
intellectual acumen the keener — the faculties of Judgment 
and Understanding, I say, are so disciplined by these exer- 
cises, that they gain, by their increased strength and vigor, 
an ascendency over "heedless, rambling impulse," and hold 
the powers of the mind in the attitude of intense and delib- 
erate thought; and make it investigate, arrange, discrimi- 
nate, and classify, correctly, not only the ideas and opera- 
tions of other minds, but its own ideas and operations. 

Having led the pupil up through the gradations of the six 
previous departments, we come now, in the natural order of 
our remarks, to a consideration of the sciences appropriated 
to department number seventh, into which the pupil should 
be introduced, at the age of twelve -years — we come, now, 
to a consideration of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, and 
Chimistry. In remarking upon these sciences, we shall en- 
deavor to answer the following questions, which seem to sug- 
gest themselves: — Is it important that the mass of students 
should study Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chimistry 
at all? Should those sciences be studied in connection with 
each other? Should they be studied at this stage of the 
pupil's progression? In what order and manner should they 
be studied? What peculiar effect will each have upon the 
mind of the student? 

1. Is it important that J\''atural Philosophy^ Astronomy^ and 
Chimistry should be studied at all, by the mass of students? 
Upon this subject, there is a diversity of opinion. While 
some consider, that the whole mass of the public, be they 
high or low, rich or poor, should become familiar with every 
branch of science, others there are, who regard the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, beyond a bare sufficiency to subserve the 
mere exigencies of human condition, as superfluous, and 
needlessly expensive. Happy, for America, that the latter 
class constitute but an insignificant, besotted, and groveling- 
minded minority — a minority, every day, waning before the 
increasing illumination of the age. Were we Monarchists or 
Papists, we might, with some show of consistency with our po- 



246 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

litical and moral creed, advocate such a sentiment; hut never 
could we advocate a sentiment, so abhorrent to every princi- 
ple of free institutions, and so destructive of their perpetuity, 
and, at the same time, claim the high privilege and honor of 
being Republicans. As Republicans, then, we assert, in consis- 
tency with the principle, that "all men are born free and 
equal," that the mass of students should become familiar 
with every branch of general science, and should, conse- 
quently, study Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chim- 
istry. 

2. Should these sciences be studied in connection with each 
other? In consistency with the principles of our theory, hith- 
erto advanced, we answer in the affirmative. They should 
be studied in connection with each other, because they are 
closely allied to each other, and connected together by bonds 
of very perceptible affinity. Astronomy, and, in a remoter 
degree, Chimistry, are, indeed, but branches of Natural Phi- 
losophy, since they all treat, in one way or another, about 
the properties of natural bodies, and their various phe- 
nomena. 

3. Should these sciences be studied at this stage of the pupiVs 
progression? According to that order and train of scientific 
pursuit and investigation, which philosophy, reason, and 
common sense seemed to dictate, and which we have regar- 
ded, thus far, in our progression, those sciences appear to be 
most appropriate subjects of attention and acquisition. Hith- 
erto, the pupil has stored Memory with a mass of facts from 
Geography and History, which furnished matter for thought, 
reflection, and comparison — has arranged that material for 
ideas, in conspicuous order, in his mind, by the stud}^ of 
Grammar and Rhetoric; and it seems proper that he should 
now be introduced into the workshop, laboratory, observa- 
tory, and arcana of JVature* It seems proper, in other words, 
that he should examine the diversified specimens of Nature's 
workmanship, which appear around him — analyze those spe- 
cimens, and ascertain their peculiar properties and charac- 
teristics — glean information and correct ideas, respecting 
the distant bodies of the Universe — and solve, so far as pos- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 247 

sible, the phenomena and mysteries of nature's arcana. It 
is proper that he sliould do so, because his powers and facul- 
ties of mind have been sufficiently developed, disciplined, 
and invigorated, by previous exercise, to grapple with those 
sciences, and successfully to investigate them. Whereas 
they would not, yet, be sufficiently invigorated to grapple 
with and comprehend those sciences, which require a greater 
exertion of the reasoning powers. 

4. In what order and manner .thonld the sciences^ appropria- 
ted to this department^ be studied? Natural Philosophy, exclu- 
sive of Astronomy, should occupy the pupil's attention, du- 
ring the first four months of his thirteenth year, because it 
analyzes and explains those propei'ties of bodies, which are 
most obvious, and with which he is most familiar. Astron- 
omy* should occupy his attention, during the next four 
months, because the science, which treats of the perceptible 
properties and phenomena of distant or heavenly bodies, 
should follow immediately after that science, which de- 
scribes the obvious properties and phenomena of nearer 
bodies. And, Chimistry should be studied after the other 
two, during the last four months of the year, which is allot- 
ted to the exercises of this department, because it analyzes 
and investigates those properrties and phenomena of bodies, 
which are less perceptible and more abstruse. This, I con- 
sider, is the order in which those sciences should be studied. 
The manner in which they should be studied, should, in its 
general features and principles, be similar to that already 
recommended. They should be explained by familiar lec- 
turing, and by practical experiments with all the various 
philosophical, astronomical, and chimical apparatus, which 
have been or may be invented, and, without the use of 
which, these sciences could not be perfectly understood. 

*It is expected, that the pupil will, at this stage of his progression, 
and in this connection, study only the general principles of the sci- 
ence of Astronomy; leaving all deep mathematical problems and ques- 
tions which relate to the admeasurement of the planets — the computa- 
tion of relative distances — the calculation of eclipses, et cetera, to be 
solved in the Mathematical department. 



248 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Having completed his thirteenth year, and acquired the 
sciences of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chimistrj'^, 
the pupil should, at the commencement of his fourteenth 
year, enter the eighth department, and spend another year 
in pursuing the study of nature, by acquiring the sciences of 
Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany. This department should 
be a complete Mineralogical, Geological, and Botanical cab- 
inet. In it should be collected, if possible, earths from all 
the different regions and strata of the globe — stones, metals, 
and minerals from all the different quarries and mines — and 
flowers of every hue, shape, and texture, from nature's gar- 
den. In the acquisition of these three sciences, the student's 
fourteenth year should be employed. He would, in that 
period, assisted by the lectures and familiar explanations of 
the Professor, in unison with his experiments, and with the 
information, which books throw upon the subject, become 
thoroughly acquainted, not only with the various specimens 
of Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany, but with the peculiar 
properties of each specimen. 

The pupil will, now, not only have acquired a knowledge 
of the general outlines of the earth, the history of the promi- 
nent incidents, which have transpired upon it, during the 
various ages, since its creation, and been taught to think and 
speak correctly and systematically upon these as well as 
other sul)jects; but he will have expanded his views and 
opened an almost endless variety of intellectual prospects 
before the mind, (which were not previously supposed to be 
in existence,) by his investigations of the principles and ope- 
rations of nature, as exhibited in the structure of the earth, 
and in the properties of the various bodies which surround us. 

At the age of fifteen, the pupil should be introduced into 
the Arithmetical department, and should be employed, for a 
year, in the study of Common Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigo- 
nometry, Surveying, and Book-keeping. 

In my remarks under this head, I design to show, at some 
length, the reasons why Arithmetic should be studied subse- 
quently to the sciences, which have already been the subjects of 
our aUention and remark. We recommended that Geogra- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 249 

phy and History should first be studied, because they disci- 
pline and invigorate the Memory principally, which is the 
first faculty of tlie mind, which is developed in the child, and 
is consequently the first which is improvable and expand!- 
ble. Grammar and Rhetoric were next appointed, because 
they exercise and invigorate the Jicdgment and Understand- 
ing, which, in the order oi mental development, are the next 
faculties, which are improvable and expandible, and, be- 
cause they, by the exercise of perception and discrimina- 
tion, arrange, and classify, and bring into systematic order, 
that mass of knowlpdge, which had been previously acqui- 
red from study, and from observation. Natural Philosophy, 
Astronomy, Chimistry, Mineralogy, Geology, and Botany, 
were next appointed, because they not only continue to im- 
prove and expand Memory, Judgment, and Understanding, 
but exercise that faculty of the mind, denominated Fancy, 
or Imagination. For these sciences take a broad survey of 
nature, from the most minute microscopic to the grandest and 
most sublime telescopic views. And, what a field do they 
open for Imagination? From the smallest spire of grass — 
from the lowliest flower that is born 

" to blush unseen, 



"And waste its sweetness on the desert air" — 

from the deep bosom of the earth, where shines the gold, 
and glitters the diamond, upward through all the immeasur- 
able expanse of the Univei-se, Imagination may expatiate 
from world to world, and from star to star; and having, with 
practiced and vigorous wing, arrived at the very outermost 
boundaries of all that is visible, to eye or telescope, she may 
dart away, into the vast regions of probability, and conjec- 
ture, and through all the immensity of space discern worlds, 
and suns, and systems, millions of leagues beyond the utmost 
ken of either eye or telescope. Having thus exercised, and 
disciplined, and invigorated, by previous study, the faculties 
of Memory, Judgment, Understanding, and Imagination, the 
pupil should now commence the study and the acquisition of 
those sciences, or rather ramifications of a science, which 
32 



250 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

exercise, discipline, and invigorate Reason^ which is the 
last faculty of the mind, that can be said to be perfectly de- 
veloped, and the last which is improvable and expandible. 
I have deferred the study of Arithmetic to the present stage 
of the student's progress, expressly for this purpose — express- 
ly for the purpose of calling into vigorous exercise the pow- 
ers of Reason; since, by the operations and deductions of 
the reasoning powers, this science is acquired. Almost all 
Arithmetical and Mathematical problems and questions are 
solved, alone, by a process of pure reasoning. Premises are 
stated, deductions or inferences are made, in a connected 

*It may be proper, here, to remark, in the form of a note, that, out 
of the confusion and ambiguity of philosophical speculations and treati- 
ses, I have collocated that classification and nomenclature of the facul- 
ties of the mind, which seemed to me most consistent and reasonable. 
In collocating that classification and nomenclature, I have neither ac- 
knowledged Stewart, nor Locke, nor Brown, nor any other philosopher, 
as an infallible guide, — not from any vanity of appearing to differ from 
those great men, but from a conviction, that their theories were, in a 
greater or lesser degree, erroneous. While some, for instance, assert 
that Judgment and Understanding are the same, others deny the cor- 
rectness of this assertion. And, while some affirm, that Reason and 
the Power of Reasoning are synonymous terms, others declare, equally 
as positive, that they are distinct faculties. Pome particulars I have 
adopted from the respective theories of each philosopher, while, in 
other particulars, I have difiered from them altogether, because I could 
not perceive the propriety of their opinions. Much ambiguity, it is 
true, prevails in language; and the great majority of controversies 
arise from the fact, that no two men, perhaps, attach precisely the 
same shade of meaning to the same word. In classifying the faculties 
of the mind, however, I have aimed at as much precision, and as much 
conformity to common usage, as the genius of language would admit. 
I have divided the faculties of the mind into Memory, Judgment, Un- 
derstanding, Imagination, Reason, and Will. By Memory, I mean the 
retentive power of the mind — by Judgment, the discriminative power — 
by Understanding, the perceptive power — by Imagination, the imagin- 
ative power — by Reason, the deductive power — and by Will, the active, 
imperative, or dominative power. Or, in other words, the power of 
retaining ideas — the power of comparing ideas — the power of per- 
ceiving ideas — the Tpov/er of producing ideas — the power of drawing 
one idea from another — and the power of controlling body and mind. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 251 

chain, from those premises, and a conclusion is drawn. If 
the premises be correct, and the deductions from those pre- 
mises be correct, the conclusion will, also, be correct. And, 
so '-'•vice versaJ'^ If this, then, be the correct order of study 
— if this order be founded, as we have endeavored to show, 
upon philosophical principles — how utterly deficient, in the 
knowledge of the human mind, and of the order of mental 
development, are both parent and teacher, who permit the 
pupil to study Arithmetic at thetommencement of his course, 
when he should be merely storing and expanding his Mem- 
ory, with the outlines of Geography, and the facts of His- 
tory, and, how utterly misdirected, inefficient, and power- 
less, are the efforts of such a pupil. By such a course, the 
laws of consistent operations are violated, the grossest igno- 
rance is manifested, as to the philosophy of the expanding 
and maturing intellect, and the wholesome order of nature, 
which is quite perceptible, upon a little investigation, is in- 
verted. It is as if a child should, soon after his birth, be 
urged to walk and to put forth exertions, when his limbs and 
muscular powers have, as yet, attained but little firmness, 
strength, or nerve. The immature intellect is loaded down 
with tasks so burdensome, that it cannot sustain them, and 
sinks, under them, into despondency and listlessness, acqui- 
ring, thereby, an almost unconquerable disrelish for all 
mental exertion. How very important, then, is it, that cor- 
rect philosophical principles, and the natural order of men- 
tal development, should be consulted invariably, in order to 
determine the choice and order of studies. 

In department number ninth, or the Arithmetical depart- 
ment, vulgar or common Arithmetic should be studied, by 
the pupil, during the first four months of his fifteenth year; 
Geometry, Trigonometry, and Surveying, during the second 
four months; and Book-keeping, during the last four months. 
It is needless, here, to remark, about the requisite qualifica- 
tions of the Professor of this department, and the manner of 
acquiring those sciences. This would only be repeating, in 
substance, what has already been suggested, as the general 
principle of our theory. It is expected, according to the 



352 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

operations of that principle hitherto developed, that the Pro- 
fessor will not only he a good general scliolar, hut that he 
will be parlicularly qualified for his ofiice; and it is also ex- 
pected, in accordance with that general principle, that the 
manner of acquiring those sciences, will be that of familiar 
and minute explanation, and of mutual investigation, as 
has hitherto appeared so appropriate and beneficial. 

The particular effect, which the study of those branches 
of science exert upon the mind, or rather upon that most 
important of all its faculties, called Reason, may very pro- 
perly command a few moments of our attention. It teaches 
the art, from certain given premises or antecedents, which 
are obvious and acknowledged, to make certain deductions 
and draw certain conclusions, which are neither obvious nor 
acknowledged, until they shall have been brought to light 
and demonstrated by a process of reasoning. This process 
requires cool, intense, and persevering thought; as it consists 
of a connected chain of antecedents, and of consequents, 
drawn out, sometimes, to a great length, every link of which 
must be attended with a certainty of. its truth, or else the 
least particle of deviation from correctness, will produce a 
false conclusion, and so error, instead of truth, will be the 
result of investigation. Cool, intense, and persevering thought 
is, therefore, required, lest some link in the chain of ante- 
cedents and consequents should be left out, and so the chain 
be imperfect. For, \i ninety-nine consequents, resulting from 
their respective antecedents, in a given deduction, should all 
be correct, and yet, if the hundredth consequent, from the 
ninety-ninth antecedent, should be incorrect, the conclusion of 
a correct deduction from correct premises would also be in- 
correct. Or, if the second consequent in that chain of de- 
duction, should be erroneous, although its respective antece- 
dent might be true, yet the whole remaining chain of ante- 
cedents and consequents would be false, and the conclusion 
false. The science of Arithmetic and other kindred scien- 
ces, then, are beneficial in their influence over the mind, in- 
asmuch as they teach it to think intensely and accurately — 
to discover hidden truths by the comparison of certain given 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 253 

and acknowledged truths, as in the golden Rule of Pro- 
portion, and thus multiplying knowledge, indefinitely, and 
witlj absolute cerlaiuty. From what has been said, we may 
infer, that no study nor science is^rcalculated to impart so 
much firmness, stability, and dighity, to the mind, so much 
clearness of perception to the understanding, and so much 
readiness, on all occasions, to detect error, though shielded 
by a triple fold of sophistry and dark deceit, as the Arith- 
metical and Mathematical sciences. For this reason, I have 
recommended, that two whole years be devoted to the acqui- 
sition of these two sciences, or rather these two branches of 
the same science. Having become perfect master of Com- 
mon Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, Surveying, and 
Book-keeping, in their appropriate order, during the studies 
of his fifteenth year, the pupil should next enter department 
number tenth, or the Mathematical department, and divide 
the year between Algebra, Conic Sections, Fluxions, Navi- 
gation, Euclid's Elements, and the solution of difficult prob- 
lems in Astronomy. 

Some, who never, themselves, pursued the proper course, 
in the acquisition of science, may imagine, that the study of 
Mathematics, for two years, must, necessarily, be dry and 
extremely uninteresting to pupils, because it was diy and un- 
interesting to them, when they studied. Such a conclusion, 
however, by no means follows, logically, from such premi- 
ses. The objector, when he attempted to study those scien- 
ces, either commenced them, as many do, while his powers 
of Reason were, as yet, too feeble to grapple with and com- 
prehend them, or else he enjoyed not those facilities and 
that explanation and assistance of a Professor, which we 
propose, by our theory, to give the student. The study was, 
therefore, dry, and uninteresting to him, and, in consequence, 
he contracted, toward it, deep disgust. But, if studied at a 
proper stage of the pupil's progression, and if sufficiently 
explained by a competent Professor, Mathematics are far, 
very far, from being dry and xinintcresting. I speak from ex- 
perience, when I assert, that, in the acquisition of no science, 
whatever, do students, who have arrived at a suitable age. 



254 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and who possess proper instruction, manifest so deep and 
intense an interest, as in the acquisition of these sciences. 
The reason, I apprehend, is because every step of the pupil's 
progress is attended with the certainty of truth, and because 
he thereby obtains the delightful consciousness of possessing 
the power to overcome difficulties, to bring forth to light, 
things which were abstruse, and to. arrive, by intricate wind- 
ings, and passages, to certain conclusions. There is some- 
thing so fascinating in these certain advances towards the 
revelation of hidden truths — something which so enchains, 
and, as it were, absorbs the soul, that individuals have been 
known to continue their investigations, unconscious and un- 
disturbed, while the building over their heads was enveloped 
in Jlames, and while the deafening outcry of ''[fire! — -fireP^ — 
resounded around their windows; — neither were they aware 
of their danger, until awaked from their reverie of study, and 
dragged out of the blazing house by force. I have seen scho- 
lars, after having spent three or four days of intense appli- 
cation in the solution of a single question, so elated by suc- 
cess and conquest, that they seemed, for the moment, almost 
delirious with joy; and, as an illustration of this effect, Archi- 
medes, a celebrated geometrician, born at Syracuse, may be 
adduced, who, discovering the solution of a difficult problem, 
while bathing, was so overjoyed, that he lost the command 
of himself, and, like a maniac, ran, naked, out of the bath, 
crying — "/ have found it! — I have foimd it!'''' 

Having spent two years in succession in Mathematical 
studies, and having laid up their general priliciples in a con- 
nected and perceptible chain in the mind, the pupil should, 
now, for a time, cultivate other powers besides Reason, lest 
one faculty, being exercised more than the other, should gain 
an unhappy preponderance over the others, and so destroy 
the harmonious equilibrium of the whole. By studying 
Mathematics too exclusively, to the neglect of other sciences, 
the mind imperceptibly acquires the habit of regarding all 
subjects of contemplation, with a look of cold calculation — of 
requiring that every thing, which challenges belief, should 
Ve attended with full evidence of its mathematical certainty 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 255 

— and of rejecting and rebuking away from its presence, 
every thing, whicli savors of warmth and enthusiasm in the 
reception or in tlie advocation of doctrines or principles of 
science. In like manner, when works of romance and fic- 
tion are read, to the almost total exclusion of other works 
and other studies, the Imagination gains an undue ascenden- 
cy over the mind ; the more solid branches of knowledge are 
disrelished; Reason is deposed from the throne of the intel- 
lect; and Fancy snatches the reins of mental government, 
and roves, wild and wayward, through boundless and unreal 
scenes of ever-varying imagery. These two extremes should 
be avoided, and a healthful equilibrium should be preserved 
between the faculties, by a well digested, and prudently 
appointed, system of mental exercise. I would, therefore, 
recommend that the pupil should, after having acquired the 
Mathematics, study the ancient Classics for six months. 
These will agreeably variegate his studies. By the acqui- 
sition of the ancient Latin and Greek languages, he will not 
only improve his knowledge of Grammar and the grammati- 
cal construction of language, but will improve and polish 
his style of thinking, writing and conversation. Or, in other 
words, he will refine that discriminative power of the mind, 
which some rhetoricians call Taste, but which I have deno- 
minated, and would still call. Judgment,* — he will, I say, 
refine that discriminative faculty. For the rarest specimens 
of the sublime, and beautiful, and refined, in composition, are 
to be found, alone, in the ancient classics. And, no won- 
der; since some of the authorst are reputed to have spent ten 
years in the composition and perfection of a single oration of 
ordinary length, while moderns cornpose whole Encyclope- 

*That faculty of the mind, which discriminates between what is 
elegant or inelegant, in the style of an author, what is beautiful or de- 
formed, lovely or unlovely, in nature, I should call Judgment. Taste, 
I would call a particular under the general head of Judgment, as flow- 
ing from it, and depending upon it. I would call it a subdivision, un- 
der the general division, of Judgment; since Taste relishes or disrel- 
ishes the beauties or deformities, which Judgment discriminates. 

flsocrates, for instance, a celebrated Grecian. 



256 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

dias in half the time. By a critical examination of their 
stjle, he will acquire a beauty, chasteness, propriety, and 
force of expression, which he could not othei-wise acquire. 
Besides, he will, probably, thereby enlarge his fund of ideas 
and words, faster, than by any other studies, whatever. 

Having spent six months in the study of the dead langua- 
ges, the pupil should complete the year allotted for ihe clas- 
sical department, in the acquisition and perusal of modern, 
or living languages. By modern languages, 1 mean not to 
include the whole, for the acquisition of those would require 
years, instead of months^. But I mean those, which seem to 
be most demanded, as the French and German languages. 
One may be led, however, to suppose, from the present 
snail-like pace of proficiency in science, that we have laid 
out more work, than the scholar can accomplish in a year, 
even if he should devote his whole time and attention to the 
acquisition merely of the Grammars of those languages. 
But, with the facilities which our theory otfers to the stu- 
dent, in the acquisition of these as wxll as all the other sci- 
ences, he will be able, during that term of time, not only to 
acquii'e the Grammar, but to make an application of it to 
the construction of the language, and to read quite fluently. 
This is all, which I propose by the course. The basis should 
merely be laid, whereon the superstructure may afterwards 
be erected, if the student but have the inclination to 
erect it. 

We come, now, to the last year of the pupil's Academic 
course, and to the consideration of the studies which would 
seem to be most appropriate for the completion of his edu- 
cation. The pupil has, thus far, been intensely occupied in 
the acquisition of those sciences, which treat of the wo^ld, 
the transactions of men, the wonders, and mysteries, and 
phenomena, of nature, and, in combining, comparing, and 
classifying, those ideas, which he has thus derived from the 
contemplation of external objects and events. It would 
now be very appropriate, tliat the pupil should dismiss from 
his attention all external objects and studies, and contem- 
plate, exclusively, the operations of his own mind, as por- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 337 

trayed, more or less vividly, in the sciences of Logic, Ethics, 
Metaphysics, and Mental Philosophy, of which latter, how- 
ever, the former can he considered only as branches. For, 
the mind possesses the wonderful faculty of looking inward, 
upon itself, in obedience to the mandate of the governing 
Will, as well as outward upon the objects which surround it, 
and possesses the power of analyzing, in a measure, its own 
structure, strength, and operations. It is important, then, 
that it become thoroughly acquainted with itself, with the 
correct classification of its faculties, and. their peculiar offi- 
ces, and determine, as nearly as possible, the exact bounda- 
ries of its potency and its impotency — that it contemplate 
the manner in which its ideas are originated; first in a sim- 
ple form, by means of the impression of external objects 
upon the sensorium,or mental retina, through the medium of 
sensation; and afterwards, in a complex form, by means of the 
combination of those simple ideas, and by means of the ope- 
rations of the mind in comparing, arranging, and classifying, 
the knowledge which it has already acquired, and in dedu- 
cing from it, other trains of thought, and combinations of ideas, 
which are, as it were, the offspring of its own creation. Thus, 
might the student very beneficially spend the closing year of 
his Academic course, by the dissection of his own mind, and 
the intense contemplation of its operations and phenomena. 

Before bringing this Lecture to a close, it may be proper 
to make a few explanatory remarks: 

L The course of studies, which we have recommended, 
in the foregoing plan, as the appropriate course, should, by 
no means, be considered as comprehending the whole of a 
student's education. By no means. Only the bare basis of 
an education is laid, whereupon the student should, in after 
life, erect the superstructure, by patient and unwearied ap- 
plication. Let him enter whatsoever department of busy 
life, or occupy whatsoever station he may, he will, doubtless, 
have many leisure moments. Instead of wasting these leis- 
ure moments in idle reverie or recreation, he should spend 
them all in the review and perfection of those sciences, 

which he has studied — in their application to the purposes 
33 



258 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and business of* active life — and in the enlargement of his 
sphere of knowledge, by the perusal of well selected books, 
and by making close and scrutinizing observations, upon men 
and manners around him. 

Instances, have come under my observation, of students, 
who, after having passed through their Academic and Col- 
legiate course, with honor, have supposed that their literary 
career was complete. With sophomoric pride and vanity, they 
have imagined that they were standing upon the very sum- 
mit of the "Hill of Science," a brilliant point of attraction to 
the admiring gaze of those, who come within the circumfer- 
ence of that halo of literary glory, which they shed around 
them ; and imagined, also, that they should maintain that stan* 
ding, and continue uninterruptedly to elicit admiration and 
applause, without proceeding further in the career of know- 
ledge, or making another eflTort. They, indeed, seem, as it 
were, to have adopted for their motto — "JVe plus ultra''' — ^^no- 
thing more beyond.'''' But, the sequel of their lives shows, that 
they were deluded by some strange intellectual phantasy, or 
optical deception of the mind. They might, indeed, have had 
their vanity inflated by the flattering plaudits of a few literary 
dwarfs and pigmies around them. But, so far from standing, 
as they fondly imagined, upon the very acme of the "Hill of 
Science," they had but just begun to ascend its declivities, and 
had they attempted to have progressed further, they would 
aoon have detected that optical delusion of the mind, by 
which they supposed that they had reached the goal of per- 
fection in knowledge. Yes, in their onward march, they 
would soon have come to those eminences, from which, if 
the traveler but look — 

"Th' increasing prospect tires his wontl'ring eyes; 
"Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise. 

Such sophomoric spirits amplify the correctness of Pope's 
beautiful delineation of those, who are elated by a "little 
learning," where he says — 

"Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts, 
"In fearless youth we 'tempt the height of arts. 



liECTURES ON EDUCATION. "259 

"While from the bounded level of our mind, 
"Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind." 

But, if they stopped not in their career, but progressed, as 
they might, with continued and persevering application, 
they vi^ould— 

" behold, with strange surprise, 

New distant scenes of endless science rise!" 

In the same manner, as the traveler, while making the Alpine 
passage — 

"Mounts o'er the vales, and seems to tread the sky; 
"Th' eternal snows appear already past, 
"And the first clouds and mountains seem the last; 
"But, those attained, he trembles to survey 
"The growing labors of the lengthen'd way." 

So very true, it is, that — 

"A little learning is a dangerous thing" — 

and that, if we would avoid the danger, we should inva- 
riably — 

"Drink deep, or taste not, the Pierian spring: 
"Since shalloiv draughts intoxicate the brain; 
"While drinking largely, sobers us again." 

Instances have, also, come under my observation, of students, 
who, during their Academic and Collegiate course, were the 
very reverse of those we have been considering; — who main- 
tained a station, in their class, far below mediocrity, and 
were looked down upon, by those sophomoric spirits, as lite- 
rary dwarfs and pigmies, beneath their notice. Yet, those 
same students have, by a life of persevering study and appli- 
cation, at length, overtaken, and passed far beyond those, 
who once "derided their slow and toilsome progress;" and 
have even, in some cases, eventually planted their feet upon 
the highest eminence of human attainment, tho' not upon the 
summit of the ^^Hill of Science:''^ for, that summit is neither 
attainable by man, nor by angel; by Cherubim, nor by Sci- 
aphim — but only by the Eternal, himself, who sits upon the 



260 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

"topless throne" of perfection. " I make this hroad assertion, 
because I conceive that no being, let him be human, angel- 
ic, or superangelic, will ever, in his onward progression in 
knowledge, come to that spot, or that point of time, in the 
mighty revolution of endless ages, where he can stop and 
triumphantly assert— "I NOW KNOW ALL THAT CAN 
BE KNOWN — / have nozv planlcd my feet iipon the HIGH- 
EST POINT of the Hill of Science— ^nA, as I survey the 
prospect, above, below, and around, /con take into my mind's 
eye, at a glance— T}IE AMPLE SCOPE OF THE UNI- 
VERSE." Since, then, it is an incontrovertible fact, that 
no created intelligence can possibly attain to the highest 
point of the "Hill of Science" — that no being can make such 
progress in learning, but that there will still be infinitely 
more to learn; no student should adopt the motto — ''■JVe plus 
ultra''' — ^''nothing more beyond;'''' but rather, that more appro- 
priate motto — "P/ms ultra''' — '-'•more heyondf^ and, after that 
residue of knowledge should he be continually and forever 
pursuing. 

2. By a reference to the preceding and present Lectures, 
it will be seen, that we have not, in all cases, drawn out, in 
minute detail, the manner in which the sciences, appropria- 
ted to each department, should be studied. Had we done 
so, the size of this volume would have been enlarged much 
beyond its prescribed limits. But, I would, however, wish to 
have it understood, that the general outlines of the manner, 
which should be observed, in each department, is intended 
to be described in those minute details, which are given of 
the exercises^ in one or two departments, and that there 
should be'^a general similarity in the method of procedure in 
all the departments. 

3. In closing this Lecture, and my remarks upon the sub- 
jects contained in it, I cannot forbear the expression of my 
solemn conviction, that, if the system developed in those 
Lectures could be fairly and fully tested, it would be a com- 
plete remedy for all the multiform errors and evils, which 
disgrace schools at present, and depress the standard of edu- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 261 

cation. For, after making full allowance, if critics please, 
for partiality toward the offspring of one's own brain, it does 
seem to me, that tlie general principles advanced in propo- 
sed theories of improvement, arc based upon principles of 
common sense. I am confu-med in the entertainment of this 
opinion, by the full approbation and concurrence of several 
eminent and respectable literary judges, in whose opinion I 
should, at all times, and on all subjects, repose a great degree 
of confidence — much more confidence than in my own hum- 
ble opinion. And, I am confirmed and strengthened still 
further, in the opinion, from the fact, that even the objector 
admits, that the proposed theory of improvement M^ould effec- 
tually correct existing errors in schools, while he, at the same 
time, affirms that radical improvements cannot be effected, 
because the public, as a mass, cannot be brought to act 
wisely, and will not co-operate with the reformer. But, is 
this true? Are the public, as a body, so tenaciously attach- 
ed to the beaten pathway of error, that they zvill not leave 
it? Are they possessed of such a niggardly disposition, that 
they will not impart of their substance, for the attainment of 
some immense and acknowledged individual and national 
good? Are they so inactive, so selfish, so perfectly regard- 
less of the welfare of society, that they will put forth no ex- 
ertion to promote the highest benefit of their race, and ele- 
vate themselves, and their offspring, and all posterity, to an 
exalted eminence of intellectual, political, and moral excel- 
lence? "Tell it not in Gath! Publish it not in the streets 
of Askelon!" What! Will citizens of America — will Re- 
publicans, thus prove recreant to their dearest interests? 
JVo/— Never!!— NEVER!!! I crm not— I WILL not be- 
lieve it. If they shall but be convinced that rndical improve- 
ments in scliools nre practicable — if they shall but be convin- 
ced that those improvements are vastly important to the 
interests of present and succeeding generations — if they 
shall but be rationally persuaded, by sound argument, that 
some theory, which may be suggested, is correct, appropri- 
ate, and feasible, and that mankind will be vastly benefit- 
ed by its practical operations — they will rise, "c?t masse^'' 



263 liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

from Maine to Georgia, and, in one universal chorus, decree, 
that such improvements SHALL BE EFFECTED. With 
the sovereign people, then, I leave the cause ©f education, 
together with whatever of suggestion and remark I have ven- 
tured, upon the subject, having perfect confidence that they 
will counsel wisely^ decree justly^ and act promptly^ and 
efficiently. 



LECTURE Vlii. 

SUBJECT — 'ESSENTIA!. QUALIFICATIONS OF PROFESSORS. 

Having, in the five preceding Lectures, developed the 
outlines of a theory of extensive improvement in schools, 
and appointed the departments and the order of study; we 
now come to the consideration of the qualifications, which 
it is essential that Professors should possess, in order to fillj 
with dignity, ability, and efliciency, those several depart- 
ments or professorships. We have already suggested the 
plan of an Institution, wherein those Professors should pass 
through a course of study, and mental discipline, prepara- 
tory to the important duties of their oftice, located at the 
capital of each state, and the metropolis of general govern- 
ment, under the immediate supervision of the state and na* 
tional authorities. On the subject of their erection, endow- 
ment, and regulation, it is unnecessary that more be said. 
We would, now, therefore, suggest and remark upon those 
qualifications, in their natural order, which we consider re- 
quisite and indispensable, in instructors of youth. These, 
we would distinguish into — 

1. Natural, 

2. Acquired, 

as general divisions; or, in other words, into those, which 
are necessary to entitle a candidate for admission into the 
College of Professors, to a favorable reception, and into those 
which are necessary to be acquired, after he shall have been 
initiated as a member of that College. 

L Tfie candidate for admission into the State Institution 
should possess requisite JVatural Qualijicalions. The indispen- 
sable necessity of these, every person, who bestows but a 
moment of his attention upon the subject, must perceive, and, 



264 LKCTURES ON EDUCATION. 

perceiving, will acknowledge. Not every one, who ima- 
gines that he possesses appropriate natural ability — 

"To rear the tender thought, 
"And teach the young idea how to shoot" — 

is, at the same time, qualified to perform the work, and give 
the forming, and maturing character, its proper bias. Not 
every student, who has passed through his collegiate course, 
and even graduated, witli distinguished applause, and come 
forth with the "blushing honors" of the baccalaureate degree, 
"thick upon him," is qualified, by all his learning and talent, 
simply in themselves considered, to become a Professor. In 
remarking upon this subject, Hall* says, that "it is not every 
one of those, even, who possess the requisite literary attain- 
ments, who is qualified to assume the direction of a school. 
Many, entirely fail of usefulness, though possessed of highly 
cultivated minds." I will, therefore, enumerate in this 
place, what I consider should constitute the Natural Quali- 
fications, which should entitle a person to membership in 
the College of Professors, and, without the possession of 
which, he should never be admitted. 

1. Common Sense. 

2. Sound Judgment. 

3. General amiahleness of Character. 

4. Decision of Character. 

5. Public Spiritedness^ or devotion to the commoyi weal. 

6. Attachment to the society of Children. 

In the first place, then, we would remark, that Common 
Sense is an essential natural prerequisite to the admission of 
a person, into the College of Professors. By the term Com- 
mon Sense, I mean that kind of sense, which, on all occa- 
sions, in all situations, and in all cases of emergency, is use- 
ful to the possessor — which prompts, as it were, by intuition 
— which, under a given set of circumstances, teaches both 
how, and when, and zchat to plan, to speak, or to do, like an 
infallible guide. Without it, a /earnefi? man is a /oo/. With 

*Vide Hall's Lectures on School-keeping. 



LECTURES ON Education. 965 

it, an illiterate man is roise. Though a student have become 
an adept in ancient and modern lore, yet, if he be destitute 
of this very essential ingredient, in the constitution of his cha- 
racter, he is not a perfect ^^compos mentis.'''' As Hall says, 
Common Sense "is very different from genius or talent, as 
they are commonly defined, but is better than either. It 
never blazes forth with the splendor of noon, but shines with 
a constant and useful light." As this faculty of the mind — 
if philosophers will allow the term, faculty — is a very neces- 
sary qualification for business of any kind — as it is very ne- 
cessary for the Mechanic, the Manufacturer, the Merchant, 
the Husbandman, the Physician, the Lawyer, and the Theo- 
logian, so it is particularly necessary for the Instructor of 
youth, and, if he possess it not, he never should enter the con- 
secrated enclosures of the profession. Never should he, with 
an unskillful hand, essay to mold the forming character. 
The attempt would be next to impious, when we consider, 
that impressions are made, whose influence cannot be era- 
sed, during time, or the vast scope of eternal ages. He never 
should be admitted into the College of Professors, if he pos- 
sess not this faculty; for, whatever other capacities to acquire 
and retain knowledge he may possess, if this be wanting, an 
ingredient, in the constitution of his character, is wanting, 
which disqualifies him, more than would the destitution of 
any one acquisition, for the responsible office of an instruc- 
tor of youth. 

2. Sound Judgment is another essential natural prerequis- 
ite to admission into the College of Professors. By Judg- 
ment, I mean that faculty of the mind, which I have descri- 
bed, in another connection, as being the power of discrimi- 
nation between what is beautiful or deformed, in nature or 
art — what is right or wrong, lovely or unlovely, in human 
action — what is wise or unwise, practicable or impractica- 
ble, in the plan, or in the execution of an enterprise. By 
sound Judgment, I would be understood to mean, the highest 
perfection of that discriminative faculty, which can be ex- 
pected in beings so frail, and fallible, and erring, as are the 
human race. Under any circumstances, in any situation, 
34 



266 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

whatever, mechanical, agricultural, professional, or political, 
its possession is an invaluable treasure — worth more than 
gold or rubies. In both the projection and in the execution 
of all business transactions, it should ever be consulted, and 
its advice regarded almost as oracular: for it is a most wise 
and prudent counsellor, and those who listen to its admoni- 
tions, and obey its dictates, implicitly and invariably, will 
manage their affairs with discretion and success. When 
any two objects of choice are presented before the mind, 
with admirable discrimination it selects the good, and re- 
jects the evil; and, if passion, mad impulse, and unreasona- 
ble prejudice, were brought into subserviency and submis- 
sion to its cool and calculating governance, the world would 
no longer' be as it is, but as it should be. As the wholesome 
influence of its counsels and its guidance is very essential to 
the success of mere business transactions, so is it vastlj'^ more 
essential to success in the discharge of the duties of an In- 
structor of youth — as much more essential, as mind is supe- 
rior to matter, oi- Intelligence to brutishness. No one, there- 
fore, should be admitted into the College of Professors, unless 
he shall have acquired, among all who know him, the well 
earned reputation of possessing this faculty, in its healthiest, 
soundest^ and most accurately discriminating capacity. As 
Hall says — "the instructor who is not able to discriminate" 
between the diiferent dispositions of the different children, 
who are commiLtod to his charge, and the different methods 
of government, most appropriate in each particular instance, 
"but considers all alike, and treats all alike, does injury to 
many. The least expression of disapprobation to one, is 
often more than tlie severest reproof to another; a word of 
encouragement will be sufficient to excite attention in some, 
while others Avill require to be urged by every motive that 
can be placed before them. All the varying shades of dis- 
position and capacity should be quickly learned by the in- 
structor, that he may benefit all, and do injustice to none. 
Without this, w^ell meant efforts ftiay prove hurtful, because 
ill-directed, and the desired object may be defeated, by the 
very means used to obtain it." Sound Judgment, then, or the 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 967 

power by which we discriminate and discern, almost at a 
glance, what is ami<T,ble or unlovely, in disposition, and cha- 
racter, and conduct, implies a knowledge of human nature. 
This is a very valuable auxiliary, to the teacher, in the per- 
formance of his task. Occurrences may transpire in the 
course of his labors, which may perplex and bewilder him, 
unless he have, at hand, this auxiliary to help him out of his 
difficulties. Cases, for illustration, where the unalterable laws 
of the Institution have been broken, by a pupil or pupils, may 
occur, in which the actuating motive of the offender, or offen- 
ders, and the exact quality and demerit of the offence, are 
involved in considerable ambiguity, and in which, from the 
appearance of the culprit, at the bar, it is doubtful, whether 
anger, or sullcnncss, or shame, or remorse, under detection, 
apprehension, and examination, most predominate. In such 
cases, the grand difficulty lies in determining the exact grade 
and demerit of the crime — the exact feelings, wbich predo- 
minate in the mind of the offender, during his trial before 
the constituted tribunal of the Institution — and the exact 
penalty, which impartial justice would attach to the infrac- 
tion of the laws. If, however, the Professor be well versed 
in the knowledge of the human heart — if he have studied, 
narrowly, the physiognomy of the passions, and become ac- 
quainted with the multiform phases of feeling, and the indexes 
or almost infallible criteria, by which guilt or innocence, in 
a child, may be detected — if, in short, he have gone down, 
to the deep fountain head of motives, and examined minutely 
the secret springs of action — he will, in ninety-nine cases out 
of a himdred difficult ones, be able to determine correctly 
and zvisc/y, and to award a 7-ighkoiis judgment. This same 
deep and thorough knowledge of human nature, may also 
be brought into requisition, with admirable effect, in com- 
municating instruction, as well as in detecting and punishing 
offences, and preserving order. The person, who possesses 
it, knows what invisible chord to touch, in order to have the 
effect vibrate over the whole soul. He possesses the happy 
faculty of rousing and calling into exercise all the dormant 
energies of the human soul, and of impelling, or rather attrac- 



268 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ting, even the stupid, forward in their scientific career, with 
ardor, and with untamed resolution. He can wield the minds 
and the feelings of others, with an almost omnipotent influ- 
ence, and can form them into whatsoever character, and 
bias them to whatsoever course of conduct he pleases. 

3. General amiahlencss of Character, is an essential prere- 
quisite to admission into the College of Professors. By the 
phrase of General amiahleness of Character, I mean that cha- 
racter, in which all the social and moral virtues are happily 
blended and combined. The most prominent and essential 
of those, I will enumerate. Affection — Uniformity of tem- 
per — Patience — Affability of manners — Moral rectitude— 
and Moral discernment. Upon each of those particulars, I 
design to make a remark or two. 

A Professor should be affectionate. This most lovely trait, 
in the human character, should be manifested in all his de- 
portment, words, and conduct; and, like the constant flow- 
ing of rivers, towards the ocean, its influence should be pour- 
ed, day and night, upon the objects of his supervision and 
regard. It is vastly important, that this influence should be 
exerted. As the proverb — '•^like parents, like children,''^ is 
true; so the sentiment — "os is the Instructor, so are the pu- 
pils,''^ is equally true. For, if you go into families, and scru- 
tinize the character, listen to the conversation, watch the 
conduct, learn the peculiar habits and dispositions of the 
parents, and then take notice of the children, you will see, 
in nine cases out of ten, marked and striking resemblances 
between [the two. So, also, if you examine schools, critic- 
ally, where an Instructor has, for some length of time, had 
the pupils under his sole tuition and guardianship, j^ou will 
see evident traces of resemblance between the teacher and 
the taught. The dispositions of the pupils will be sour and 
quarrelsome, or sweet and pacific, according as those two 
classes of moral quahties predominate in the character and 
conduct of the Professor. How very important, then, that 
he should be affectionate, in order that he may stamp a love- 
liness upon the disposition and forming character of the 
stndent. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 269 

Uniformity of temper should characterize the teacher. Or, 
in other words, seir-possessiou and sclf-guvcrnincnt should, 
at all times, so perfectly predominate, that he should be pre- 
pared, in any emergency, however sudden, and however cal- 
culated to disturb the equilibrium of the feelings, to think, 
and to act with the utmost coolness and deliberation. An 
ardent temperament of mind, and powerful natural feelings, 
are, by no means, inconsistent with uniformity of temper. 
They can co-exist in the same person. Indeed, such a tem- 
perament and feelings constitute a desideratum, in charac- 
ter. Controlled by self-possession and self-government, they 
produce energy in purpose and in action — an energy, which 
is the mainspring of all that is grand, and noble, and god- 
like, in human transaction. An uniformity of temper, is 
sometimes the result of mere passive tameness of spirit. In 
the composition of such a character, there is too little energy 
and ardor, to produce any thing else than uniformity. From 
day to day, and from year to year, there is an unvaried and 
monotonous round of sameness and dullness. The posses- 
sion of such a trait, is to be deprecated as a calamity. Far, 
very far removed is it, from that nicely balanced adjustment 
and equilibrium of powers and feelings, which constitute, at 
the same time, both energy and equability of character. The 
destitution of such an uniformity of temper, is a great evil. 
Especially, is it an evil, if the passions be strong, and the 
feelings ardent. Such a man may be justly represented by 
a vessel, laying sometimes upon a smooth and unruffled sea, 
without a breeze to fill her sails, or else driven, by the hur- 
ricane, furiously over the tremendous swellings of the water, 
without a helmsman to guide her. He is continually verg- 
ing from one extreme of temperament to another, and, like 
a wandering star, is never stationary, in any part of his 
orbit. Change and capriciousness are written upon every 
leaf of his history. Such a man is unfit for an instructor of 
youth. For, as Hall says — "when placed in a situation, 
where his every action is observed, and where his authority 
must be in constant exercise, the man who labors under this 
malady, is especially unfortunate. It is impossible for him 



370 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

to gain and preserve respect among his pupils. No one, 
who comes under the rule of a person of uneven temper, can 
know what to expect or how to act." 

A Professor, should possess patictice, and he should "let it 
have," in the language of Scripture, ^^its perfect work.^' And 
those, who have had experience in the instruction and gov- 
ernance of a school, particularly on the common plan, have 
felt the nccessily of letting it have its "perfect work". For, 
there are many occurrences in such a school, which require 
the full exercise of this virtue in order to presex've the har- 
monious equilibrium of the feelings. In almost as much 
perfection will he need to possess this virtue, as did the 
celebrated Prince of Uz: for I have remarked, that the na- 
.tural tendency of school teaching is, the contraction of dic- 
tatorial and domineering habits, and an extreme sensibility 
of spirit, which revolts at any thing like contradiction or in- 
subordination, and which, unless it be curbed by a constant 
restraint, will manifest itself in vexation and peevishness. 
This tendency to vexation and peevishness is, however, 
mainly attributable to a want of Division of Labour among 
Teachers in our schools — for if a teacher be burdened with 
a multiplicity of duties and cares sufficient to occupy the 
whole time and attention of four or five persons — if, during 
the period of three hours, he be obliged to give instruction 
in eight or ten different sciences to fifteen or twenty diflfe- 
rent classes; to make explanations and answer some question 
every minute oi two, during those three hours, having refe- 
rence to all the various subjects of those various sciences; 
and if, at the same time, he have to watch with eagle eye, to 
keep a collection of forty or fifty buoyant youth in complete 
order — ^if a teacher, I say, be burdened with such a multi- 
plicity of duties and cares, must he not let "patience have its 
perfect work," and possess that virtue in almost as much per- 
fection, as did the Prince of Uz, if he would, at all times, 
maintain a perfect and dignified command of himself? The 
universal sentiment on this subject would doubtless be, that 
it would require more than an ordinary share of self-possession 
to produce such an effect. But it will be evident, upon a 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 271 

moment's consideration, that in the operations of our theory 
in schools, when Labor is divided among Teachers, there is 
not such a tendency to the contraction of dictatorial and do- 
mineering habits, nor to vexation and consequent peevish- 
ness. Yet even there, a strong guard should be maintained 
over every faculty, and passion, and feeling of the mind and 
heart. 

AiTability of mamicrs should be another characteristic of 
a candidate for the profession of an Instructor. He should 
be calculated by his very physiognomy and deportment, to 
command the respect and win the affection of Ciiildren at 
first sight. I do not say, that he should possess what th6 
vtmatenr would ciiW 2)crso)iaI beauty. That is not necessary* 
A person may have a physiognomy and deportment, calcu- 
lated to command the respect and win the affection of art- 
less youth, without being, in any wise, what the amateur 
would denominate handsome. He may be perfectly affable, 
tho' he be not perfectly beautiful. This pleasing trait of 
character, depends more upon certain mental rather than 
mere physical qualities — more upon an harmonious adjust- 
ment and symmetry of passions and feelings, than complexion, 
form, or features. Wherever it exists, it commands univer- 
sal admiration, and is a sure passport to favor and confi- 
dence. Children are please^ with it. They are happy in 
its presence, and under its influence. Candidates for ad- 
mission into the College of Professors should, therefore, be 
chosen and admitted into the College, with reference to the 
possession of this, as well as other amiable qualities. 

Moral rectitude of principle and conduct should invariably 
be considered, as an indispensable prerequisite to admission 
into the College of Professors. Intemperance, debauchery, 
licentiousness, profanity, and blasphemy, should never be 
permitted to come within its consecrated walls. Almost as 
properly might a troop of fiends be called up from the dark- 
ness of the pit, and qualified to be educators of youth and 
cultivators of the expanding mind, as human beings, degra- 
ded by those and similar vices. They are, in very deed, 
but fiends in embryo — devils incarnate. And it is but 



272 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

reasonable to expect, since it is consistent with analogy, that 
such educators of youth would stamp the impress of their 
own dark and polluted souls, upon the pupils of their 
charge, and that those pupils would, in after life, develop 
striking resemblances to their educators, and thus demon- 
strate the kind of school in which they had been trained: for 

"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 
I had about as lief follow a dear brother or sister of mine to 
the grave, as introduce them into an Institution, where they 
must necessarily be under the sole guardianship and tuition 
of such unprincipled men: fori should look forward, in ima- 
gination, to the rilmost certain prospect of a life of infamy, 
and, after it, to the appropriate rewards of such a life; as an 
Institution of learning, under the supervision of such a per- 
son, must be looked upon, in no other light, than as porti- 
cos to a far worse habitation than Milton's Pandemonium. 
A candidate for this important profession should, therefore, 
in all his thoughts, words and actions, be under the govern- 
ance of the most rigid, unbending, and uncompromising 
principles of moral rectitude. 

Moral discernment is another pre-eminently important trait 
in a candidate for the office of teacher. This quality is the 
natural result oi Moral Rectitude of principle. The possession 
of the former is almost as important and essential as the 
possession of the latter. For, by the latter, he exhibits good 
examples; and, by the former, he ascertains, whether his 
pupils follow those examples, determines what is the precise 
shade and character of their prevailing moral feelings and 
dispositions, and by the possession of such knowledge can, 
like a skillful mechanist, understand when that wonderful 
machine, the soul, is deranged in the operation of its ten 
thousand springs and wheels, and can regulate its propen- 
sities so far as they are exhibited in outward actions. 

4. Decision of character is an assential prerequisite to admis- 
sion into the Institution for the education of Professors. It 
implies, indeed, the possession of certain sterner qualities, 
than those, which we have been considering, though quali- 
ties, by no means, inconsistent with the utmost amiabJeness 



# 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 273 

of character, and affability of deportment. They may 
co-exist in the same person, and, at the same time, perfectly 
harmonize. When they are thus blended together in harmo- 
nious union, they, in fact, constitute the perfection of human 
character. Decision, when combined with Amiableness, 
is that noble quality, which impels a person onward in the 
pathway of duty with a purpose so determined, that no array 
of difficulty or of danger can shake it, nor any obstacle 
impede it. Towards its destined goal, it presses forward 
with inflexible perseverance, parleying not with time-ser- 
ving expediency and caution, and making no compromise 
with unprovoked and unreasonable opposition. Though 
taunts and jeers and ridicule ring in one deafening chorus 
around it, they are unheeded, and fall powerless upon the 
ear and nerve of its possessor. In the statesman, it is a 
staunch patriotism, which, night and day, "through evil 
report and good report", in prosperity and in adversity, 
with approbation or disapprobation, popularity or unpopu- 
larity, seeks the promotion of the public weal. In the 
scholar, it is a devotion to literary pursuits, which nothing 
but the pains of sickness, or the damps of death, can chill. 
In the christian, it is a fidelity, which despises all the con- 
tumely and bitter scorn, which the lawless tongue of pro- 
fanity can pour upon it, and which, with unwavering con- 
stancy and resolution, triumphs even in the prospect of the 
fiercest tortures of the rack and stake. In the magistrate, 
it is a firm adherence to the law, and a fearless and uncom- 
promising administration of justice. In the instructor of youth, 
it is the harmonious union, if I may so express my sentiment, 
of the staunch patriotism of the statesman, the deep and 
unchilled devotion of the scholar, the unwavering fidelity 
of the christian, and the inflexible adherence of the magi- 
strate to law and justice. In every situation of life, decision 
of cAarader is important, but in none more so than in that 
of a Professor. "The little world," as Hall says, "by which 
he is surrounded, is the miniature of the older community. 
Children have their aversions and their partialities, their 
hopes and fears, their plans, schemes, propensities and de- 
35 



274 LECTUKES OJC EDUCATION. 

sires. These are often in collision with each other, and not 
unfrequentlj in collision with the laws of the school, and in 
opposition to their own hest interests. Amidst all these, the 
instructor should be able to pursue a uniform course. He 
ought not to be swayed from what he considers to be right. 
If he be easily led from his purpose, or induced to vary from 
established rules, his school must become a scene of disorder. 
Without decision, the teacher loses the confidence and re- 
spect of his pupils. I would not say, that, if convinced of 
having committed an error, or of having given a wrong 
judgment, you should persist in the wrong. But I would 
say, that it should be known as one of the first principles of 
school-keeping, that what is required must be complied with 
in every case, unless cause can be shown why the rule ought, 
in a given instance, to be dispensed with. There should 
then be a frank and easy compliance with the reasonable 
wish of the scholar. In a word, without decision of purpose 
in a teacher, his scholars can never be brought under the 
influence of that discipline, which is requisite for his own 
ease and convenience, or for their improvement in know- 
ledge. 

5. Public spiritedness or devotion to the common weal should 
characterize those, who are selected to fill the responsible 
office of instructor. They should not be actuated by inter- 
ested motives and mere sordid selfishness, but be impelled to 
the work, by an ardent patriotism, and by fervent desire to 
benefit their country, and, more remotely, to benefit the 
world, as much as possible, by the agency of their instru- 
mentalities. And in what way could they benefit their 
country more vitally and essentially, than by engaging in 
the business of training and cultivating the minds oi those, 
who are soon to rise up and fill the places of their vener- 
able fathers, and who are not only destined to become the 
future voters, who shall wield the fortunes of our country, 
but the very lawyers, physicians, theologians, magistrates, 
judges, legislators, senators and statesmen, by whose direct 
agency, those fortunes are to be wielded or determined. 
For upon nothing does the stability or the instability of our 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 275 

institutions depend so much, as upon the principles incul- 
cated and impressed upon tlie infant and maturing intellect, 
in the nursery and in the seminary of learning. There, per- 
petuity is either given to our republican government, or its 
foundations are sapped, and that undermining process com- 
menced, which shall, by its fearful consummation and catas- 
trophe, enwrap the colossal towers of our independence in 
conflagration, tumble down its smoking ruins into the dust, 
and quench their burning fragments in rivers of fraternal 
blood. No profession, no station, therefore, is, in my 
humble opinion, so vastly important^ as that of a Teacher, 
since consequences of such sublime and fearful import, hang 
upon his pleasure — since he is placed in a situation, in which 
he can produce immense good or evil. For these, and other 
reasons, the candidate for admission into the College of Pro- 
fessors should be characterized by public spiritedncss, or de- 
votion to the common zveal, in order that he may exert a be- 
nign, instead of a deleterious influence upon the destinies of 
our country. 

6. Attnchmcnl to the society of children, should be considered 
as a prerequisite to the admission of a candidate into the 
oftice of a Professor. This is very essential; and I am led 
to remark upon the subject in this connection, from the fact, 
that there are some, who dislike tlie company of children, 
especially when engaged in the innocent and artless prattle 
and diversions, which are peculiar to their age. A person of 
that class seems to have been constituted with such delicate 
and irritable nerves, that he can not bear to become either 
an eye or ear witness of their buoyancy and sprightliness. 
For their noise seems, if I may so speak, "to grate harsh 
thunder" upon his organ of hearing, and throw the whole 
nervous system into a certain kind of convulsion. Children 
hate tliat unnatural constr.aint, which is imposed upon their 
prattling and buoyant propensities, by his presence. Under 
this unreasonable restraint, they do not feel happy, and, in 
process of time, they imbibe an inveterate hatred, toward 
the very sight of him. Such a person would be totally unfit 
for a teacher of youth; for he would, very soon, sour their 



'j-£\i^^^ 



276 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

dispositions, and make them as peevish and fretful as himself. 
A person, on the contrary, should, in order to be qualified 
for an instructor, be really fond of the society of children, 
for z, feigned fondness will not answer. Children are quick 
sighted in such matters, and would soon see through the 
mask of affectation. He must take a real delight in witness- 
ing their innocent and artless sports — must encourage them, 
when conducted within the bounds of propriety and reason — 
must clothie his conversation in the garb of their infantile 
phraseology, and manifest a sincere pleasure, in his inter- 
course with them. By so doing, he will have gained a full 
and free access to their every affection and feeling, and can 
excite them to whatsoever intensity of mental exertion, and 
mold their pliant minds, and hearts, and wills, into whatso- 
ever form he pleases. 

We will now consider — when — where — how — and with refe- 
rence to what literary qualifications^ candidates for admission 
into the College of Professors^ should he selected: 

1. When, or at tvhat age, should they be selected, and ad- 
mitted into the State Institution? I would answer this ques- 
tion, by recommending the age of eighteen, as an appropri- 
ate period of life, to commence a course of studies and 
exercises, particularly preparatory to the duties of that pro- 
fession or occupation, which a person intends to assume, and 
in the performance of the business of which, he intends to 
spend his days. And, I would more particularly recom- 
mend this, as it will be the period when, if our theorj^ should 
ever be tested, the young man will gr^iduate from the Coun- 
ty Institution, and can, then, most appropriately, enter upon 
his professional course of studies. 

2. Where should the candidates be selected? It seems to 
me, that, at present, young men, of the age above recom- 
mended, possessing all those natural abilities and qualifica- 
tions which have already been described, should be selected 
from the diiferent counties of the State. But, after the 
County Institutions shall have gone into operation, and been 
in operation a sufficient length of time, candidates for the 
College of Professors should be selected from those Institu- 



m 



LECTURES ON EDUCATIOX. 277 

tions, because they can there be selected, with a greater cer- 
tainty, as to their possessing the proper characteristics. For, 
during the four years of their Academic course, the various 
traits of their characters would be so fully developed, that 
the Professors of the Institution would be able to judge, as 
to their qualification or their disquahfication for the office 
of Instructor. Guided by this knowledge of their several 
abilities, the persons, who should be delegated to make the 
selection of candidates, would be enabled to determine 
wisely and correctly, as to their fitness for admission into 
the College of Professors. 

3. Hozv, or 7-ather, by whom, should the candidates be selec- 
ted? By a reference to a previous Lecture,* it will be seen, 
that twelve Commissioners were to be appointed, in each 
county, according to the proposed plan, for the general su- 
perintendence of the County Institutions. Now, those twelve 
Commissioners might select, within the boundaries of the 
county, such young men of ability, as they could recom- 
mend, and report them to the Legislature, from time to time, 
as occasion might require. It might be productive of bene- 
fit, on many accounts, perhaps, to select a sufficient number 
of candidates for admission into the College of Professors, 
from each county, to supply its own Institutions with Instruc- 
tors, when they shall have graduated from the State, and 
Grand National Institutions. The Professors would, then, 
be located for life, in the region of their nativity, which 
would obviously be, on many accounts, preferable. They 
would be intimately acquainted with the general, physical, 
intellectual, and moral, features of that county — more so, 
than they could possibly be, with those of any other portion 
of the world. They would be personally acquainted with 
most of the inhabitants of that county; and, thus knowing 
and being known, either personally or by reputation, they 
would have more influence over their neighbors, and friends, 
and acquaintances, than any other individuals, in undermi- 
ning their probable prejudices against innovations, upon old 

*Vide page 192, 



sm 






578 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and established customs, and usages, and in reconciling them 
to novelties, in theory and in practice. Besides, if those 
Professors were chosen with strict reference to those qualifi- 
cations and natural traits of character, which have been 
heretofore described, as essential prerequisites to admission 
into the profession, and if they were known to possess those 
traits and qualifications, as they undoubtedly would be, pa- 
rents would repose in them the greater confidence, and 
would the more willingly commit their offspring to their tui- 
tion, guardianship, and supervision. 

It might, also, be regarded as a desideratum, that the Pro- 
fessor should be located in the immediate vicinage of his 
"dear native bowers," and the inheritances and home of his 
fathers. For, associations of ideas would be connected with 
that spot, of a peculiarly interesting character, and would 
make it dearer and more lovely to him, than any other spot 
around the whole length and breadth of the wide globe. 
There, are the scenes of the innocent sports of his boyhood. 
There, the playmates, who roamed through the woodlands, 
or bounded over the hillocks of green, with himself, either 
live, or are sleeping beneath the cold clods, in the often 
trodden enclosure of Sepulchers. There, dwell his parents, 
and his nearest and dearest kindred. It seems, therefore, 
most appropriate, that he should have that field of labor as- 
signed him, in preference to any other, since it would be the 
most congenial with his feelings, and since he could not only 
enjoy the society of his parents, and friends, but could enjoy 
it, without performing long journeys for the purpose. 

4. With reference to what literary qualiji cations should can- 
didates for admission into the Professional College, be selec 
ted? An acquaintance with all the various branches of sci- 
ence, and a knowledge of most of the principal ancient and 
modern languages; or such an education, as is at present 
acquired, by passing through a full Collegiate course, or as 
would be acquired, by passing through the Academic course 
of the proposed County Institution, should, as I conceive, be 
considered as essential prerequisites in candidates. Having 
attained a general idea of the principles of all these scien- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 279 

ces, and being possessed of all the requisite natural qualifi- 
cations, which we have described ; such as common sense, 
sound judgment, genei-al amiableness of character, decision 
of character, public spiritedness, or devotion to the common 
weal, and attachment to the society of children, the student 
may be considered as a proper candidate. He should, there- 
fore, be selected by the County Commissioners, and be re- 
ported to the Legislature, as an appropriate subject for ex- 
amination. A delegation of members from that body should 
be designated to perform the duties of examiners, and should 
have a session every six months, at the capital of each state. 
Before this committee of delegation, all the candidates, 
which are sent in with their recommendations, by the Com- 
missioners, from the various counties, should be critically 
examined, and a sufficient number of them should be selec- 
ted to fill all the professorships, which occasion may require. 
From this delegation, each accepted candidate should re- 
ceive a certificate of his acceptance, and a diploma, testifying 
to his full qualification, as to the requisite natural and acqui- 
red ability, for an honorable admission into the office of an 
Instructor of youth, and these should be his passport into the^ 
Institution. 

We now come to a consideration of the other general di- 
vision of our Lecture, and shall describe — 

3. The abilities which are indispensably necessary to he acqui- 
red^ in order to a complete qualification to enter upon the duties 
of Professor, and in order to the obtaining, from the constitu- 
ted authorities, of a license or diploma, which shall entitle 
the person receiving it, to assume his station as a teacher, in 
the County Institution. It will be recollected, by those who 
have read the foregoing Lectures of this volume, that the 
course ot study, which should be pursued in the State and 
National Colleges, has already been hinted at, though not 
minutely described. But, it may be inquired, before we 
proceed further, whether it be, in reality, necessary, that the 
candidate for a professorship, in the County Institution, 
should be required to obtain any better literary qualifica- 



280 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

tions, than the student acquires at present, by passing through 
his collegiate course, or better than the student will here- 
after acquire, by passing through the Academic course of 
the County Institution. Perhaps not. Such would cer- 
tainly be our conclusion, if we formed our judgment 
from the present very depressed standard of education, 
and, the very depressed standard of public feeling and 
sentiment, upon the subject of education. Judging from 
the fact, that there is a vast deal of most bare-faced incom- 
petency, now introduced into the profession, almost any kind 
of talent, or natural and acquired qualification, in a teacher, 
is considered, in the estimation of the public, to be good 
enough. No matter, if the teacher be even a drunkard, 
provided, that he do not become intoxicated during school 
hours, and, under the influence of his drunken delirium, 
abuse, and unmercifully beat the pupils of his charge. This 
must be so. Public sentiment must be very indifferent upon 
the subject. Else, I see not how so many of the veriest ig- 
noramuses, and, I may even say, lewd, drunken, and dissi- 
pated vagabonds, who have but very little learning, and no 
kind of moral principle, could find employment, as instruc- 
tors of youth. Instead of having acquired a collegiate edu- 
cation, they have not even so much as acquired the funda- 
mental rudiments of their own mother tongue. There are 
hundreds — I may almost say, and say with veracity — there 
are thousands of such instructors in these United States — 
instructors, who are actually not fit to (ill the very common- 
est, and most menial offices of life, without some transfor- 
mation for the better. No, they are not fit for mechanics, 
for manufacturers, for clerks in the management of the most 
limited retail business, nor even for boot-blacks, or chimney- 
sweeps, if we consider the moral pestilence which they scat- 
ter around them! And, are these worthless men, these very 
ignoramuses, to be the educators of our youth — to be the cul- 
tivators of the immortal mind — to give the will its bias, 

and — 

" to rear the tender thought, 

"And teach the young idea how to shoot." 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 281 

Shall they determine the character and station of the next 
generation? Shall they shape and wield the destinies of 
our country? Shall they be the men, who shall give to our 
republican institutions, whatsoever of splendor, and fame, 
and perpetuity, they are destined to possess? "Tell it not 
in Gath! Publish it not in the streets of Askelon!!" Let 
it not be whispered in the ear of nations struggling for lib- 
erty! It would paralyze all their efforts, blot out the last 
ray of hope, that the race are ever to be emancipated from 
the chains and servitude of tyrants, and, in the Pandemoni- 
ums of earthly princes, potentates, and popes, would be sung 
a triumphant death song, at the funeral of liberty. For, if 
such teachers of youth, as are now employed, should be long 
and extensively engaged in discharging the duties of that 
highly responsible profession, which they have assumed, the 
experiment of civil liberty, which this country is now ma- 
king, and whose progress toward final consummation, both its 
friends and enemies, in foreign countries, are watching with 
/ deepest intensity — WILL FAIL! And, failing, the light 
%^. of the political world will be quenched in the high firma- 
ment of its gloiy, and the deep darkness of a political, and, 
I greatly fear, of a moral, night, will settle down, like the 
chill damps of death, upon the great mass of the nations. 

The reader will pardon my partial digression fi'om the 
subject. I cannot think upon this theme of remark, without 
having whatever of patriotic feeling, I may possess, stirred 
up, within me, to an intensity of action, which I cannot ea- 
sily restrain. Oh! I could throw myself upon my knees 
before my fellow-citizens, and, with tears, implore them not 
to disappoint the hopes of the world — not to be instrumental 
in sapping the foundations of our free institutions — not mad- 
ly to pluck away the keystone from the arch of our own dear 
temple of liberty, and bring down all its glory and colossal 
grandeur, in ruins upon our heads — and not to blot from the 
firmament the great sun of political freedom. Oh, my coun- 
trymen! if you would not witness all these dark and fearful 
scenes,'which are herein portrayed, and which would soon be 
no figment of the imagination, but sober realities, I entreat 
36 



282 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

you to be particularly careful, who you employ to educate 
your children, the hope of republics and of the world. Do 
not, I entreat you, as you value the inestimable privileges 
of the happy system of government under which you live, 

"Lay careless hands on s-kulls, 

"That cannot teach, and will not learn." 

Employ no ignoramus — no drunkard — no sensualist — no 
gambler — no profane and graceless vagabond, who may 
attempt to intrude himself into the consecrated enclosures 
of the profession we are considering. Oh! be awake, I en- 
treat you; be awake to the subject of education, and particu- 
larly to the subject of requisite qualifications for the admis- 
sion of candidates into the office of Instructor of youth. If 
you but deign to give this subject the deep attention, which 
its intrinsic consequence demands — if you but survey it, mi- 
nutely, in all the length and breadth, and height and depth, 
of its importance, I am fully persuaded, thattyour views 
would coincide with mine, upon this subject, and' that you 
would decree, that Professors cannot possibly be too well 
qualified; and that they ought never to be permitted, by the 
authorities of the land, to teach, or attempt to teach, unless 
they are well qualified, using the term in its most extensive 
signification. I am persuaded, that you would not consider, 
that the present Collegiate, or the proposed Academic 
course, is calculated to qualify students 'for ' Instructors, 
since, in it, the whole attention is absorbed in the acquisi- 
tion of the general principles of all the various sciences — 
since all the explanations of teachers have reference to the 
same object — and since no attention is, consequently, given 
to a minute, particular, and philosophical analyzation of 
those sciences, with a view to the attainment of the requi- 
site qualifications to teach them. It is, therefore, presumed 
that when the subject of education shall, as it doubtless will 
eventually, and probably at no very far distant da}^, appear 
with that conspicuousness and prominency, in'^public esti- 
mation, which its importance demands, there will be no ob- 
jection preferred against the location and endowment of 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 283 

such Institutions, at the capitals of the several states, and at 
the metropolis of the general government, as I have hereto- 
fore recommended, for the education of Professors in studies, 
having reference, more particularly, to a preparation for the 
duties of their profession. They will rather apprehend, and 
feel, when the full weight of its importance shall rest upon 
their minds, that there is a pressing necessity that such Insti- 
tutions should be founded, and that the imperative exigen- 
cies of human condition demand them. For, if the hatter, 
the carpenter, the shoemaker, the goldsmith, and most other 
mechanics, must spend an apprenticeship of four, five, six, 
or even seven years, before they are adjudged, by common 
consent, to have acquired their respective trades, or to have 
become finished workmen, is it not equally as necessary that 
the candidate for the office of a teacher of youth, should also 
serve an apprenticeship, at his business, in order to learn 
the wondrous mechanism of the human mind, and under- 
stand all its complicated capacities, and powers, and hidden 
energies, and know how, with the confident and unerring 
skill of a master-workman, to regulate them all, keep them 
in harmonious order, and develop the utmost extent of their 
capabilities? Common sense, answers in the affirmative — 
yea, answers, that it is vastly mo7-e important, that the tea- 
cher should serve an apprenticeship, at his vocation, rather 
than the hatter, the carpenter, the shoemaker, the goldsmith, 
or any other mechanic — as much more important, as mind is 
superior to matter, or the richest intellectual treasures supe- 
rior to mere articles of merchandize. 

In the proposed State, and National Colleges, for the edu- 
cation of Professors, I do not design to recommend, that any 
branch of science shall be the subject of attention, which has 
not already been studied : for it is premised, that the mem- 
bers of these Institutions shall, at their introduction, have 
studied every branch of general science, and become ac- 
quainted with the most impoi'tant ancient and modern lan- 
guages. I would, therefore, recommend that those same 
sciences sliould be reviewed in their appropriate order, and 
most critically examined, and analyzed, more for the pur- 



284 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

pose of being able, with a perfectly clear understanding of 
every subject, to communicate that knowledge to others, 
which we have acquired, rather than for the mere purpose 
of reviewing those sciences in order to become the better 
acquainted with them, solely on our own account. It is one 
thing to study a science with a view merely to its attainment, 
and another thing, entirely, to study it for the purpose of 
explaining it, and communicating it to others. The latter, 
is far more difficult of attainment, than the former, inasmuch 
as it is harder to answer a question than to ask one, and to 
discover secret causes, than to trace them, when discovered, 
to their appropriate and legitimate effects. In making pre- 
paration to discharge the duties of his station, it is necessary 
that the Professor should have a knowledge of the sciences 
he is to teach, so perfect, that he will be enabled to answer, 
instantaneously, any question, involving doubt or difficulty, 
and so to answer, and so to explain, to the comprehension of 
the pupil, that he shall have a perfect understanding of those 
doubtful and difficult subjects. In order to be thus prepa- 
red, and ready on all occasions, four years of intense study, 
in the review of the sciences, will be none too much time 
to spend; and, if those four years be spent in intense prepa- 
ratory studies, how vastly different will, then, be the charac- 
ter of our teachers of youth? How vastly exalted will they, 
then, be, above the present pigmy* race of comparative igno- 
ramuses, in the science of teaching! How high will the 
standard of education, then, be elevated! To my country- 
men, I would now appeal; for, upon their suffrages, and their 
decision, depend the accomplishment of all these improve- 
ments, and the production of all these benefits. Noble- 
hearted Americans, shall those improvements be accom- 
plished? Shall those benefits be bestowed upon your chil- 
dren, and upon posterity? Shall the whole mass of your 
countrymen be, by your instrumentalities, exalted to an hon- 
orable standing, and, by your suffrages and decisions, shall, 



*When I speak thus, I would have it understood, that there are 
some honorable exceptions, to the common mass of incompetents. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 285 

not only our free institutions be perpetuated to the latest 
posterity, and an halo of tenfold splendor be thrown around 
the temple of liberty, but shall your influence extend to 
transatlantic countries, and, like aquafortis, eat off the chains 
of every fettered man, and of every fettered nation? Ame- 
ricans! Republicans! proud of your institutions, and happy 
in the enjoyment of the privileges which they afford, you 
will decree it — I hesitate not to believe — you will decree it. 
And if you do decree it, in subserviency to the decrees of 
Heaven, I hesitate not to believe, that — IT WILL BE 
DONE. 



LECTURE IX. 

SUBJECT GOVERNMENT OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS. 

"Order is Heaven's ^rs/ law." 

This motto, wliich I have selected from the celebrated 
work of a celebrated poet, or some analogous sentiment, 
should be inscribed upon the pillars of every throne, and 
over the arch-way of every senate-house, and temple of jus- 
tice. For, if Deity decree that order shall be tlie grand fun- 
damental law, by which his vast dominions shall be govern- 
ed, it would, doubtless, be the consummation of wisdom, if 
human princes, and legislators, and statesmen, and law-givers, 
would consult the statute-book of the Eternal, and derive 
their systems of government from its infallible precepts. Yes 
— it would be well to found, upon the broad basis of the sin- 
gle law of order, the superstructure of every human institu- 
tion, civil, political, and moral, in which law would be re- 
quired, to regulate its affairs. Consult nature. I^ook through 
all its broad immensity. Examine the vast and complicated 
machinery of the Univei^e, and witness its operations, from 
the smallest mote that floats in the sunbeam, to the largest 
crib of glory that blazes in the far-off fields of ether. Is it 
not obviously perceptible, that '-'•order''' is the prevailing law, 
by which that machine is regulated? Mark the seasons. 
Day and night, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, spring, 
summer, autumn, and winter, succeed each other, with the 
most perfect regularity. Witness tb.e "mystic dance" of the 
planets. Take Herschel's telescope, at night, ascend upon 
some mount of vision, as your observatory, and there con- 
template that "mighty maze" of worlds piled upon worlds, 
suns upon suns, and systems upon systems, which the cloud- 
less expanse of the w< Ikin reveals. Although those count- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 287 

less bodies of matter, scattered so thickly through such a 
mighty sweep of space, arc all in motion — although orbit is 
convolved in orbit, witli labyrintliian intricacy — although 
comets dart across the pathway of worlds, almost with the 
velocity of liglitning; yet, you discover no disorder there. 
Sphere jars not with sphere. Planets clash not with planets. 
The opposite principles of attraction and repulsion, are so 
nicely balanced — such perfect equilibrium is maintained 
between tlie centrifugal and centripetal forces, that all their 
multiform movements are marked by perf< ct harmony. The 
sun rises and sets, moons wax and wane, the earth revolves, 
daily, upon her axis, and, yearly, makes her circuit round 
the sun, with such regularity and definiteness, that Astrono- 
mers can, with infallible certainty, tell, for centuries to 
come, at what precise time, the s-un will rise and set, upon a 
given day; when the moon shall wax and wane; and, in what 
part of its circuit, the earth shall then be. No wonder, then, 
that Pope — when he looked abroad through nature, con- 
templated the perfect harmony of its movements, and 

marked — 

" the mighty hand, 

"That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres" — 

should have drawn the rational conclusion, that — 

"Order is Heaven's ^rsflaw" — 

Since nothing but the most perfect order could preserve the 
equilibrium of that mighty machine — the Universe of zvorlds. 
That we may have a vivid idea of the vast importance of 
this law, deeply engraven upon our minds, before we proceed 
to the direct consid edition of the proposed topics of this Lec- 
ture, let us contrast all the order we have been contemplating, 
with as universal disorder. Let us suppose, for instance, 
that the grand principle of attraction, by which the bal- 
ance of the planets is preserved, should rebel and refuse to 
act, in its appointed capacity, as an efficient agent of the 
Great Architect; or suppose that either the centripetal or 
centrifugal forces should cease to exert their respective in- 
fluences in their respective spheres of action; wiiat Mould be 



'288 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the necessary consequence ? Why, infinite confusion, anarchy, 
and ruin, would be the result; sphere would jar with sphere; 
world would dash against world; planets, and comets, and 
suns, would meet in terrible conflict on the battlefields of 
the sky; system with system clashing would 

" bray 



"Horrible discord, and the madd'ning wheels 
"Of brazen fury rage". 

Yes, the mighty shock, of contending elements would wreck 
the universe, and enwrap all nature in one general conflag- 
ration. For, according to the celebrated Poet from whose 
sentiments we have sek.cted our motto, "the great scale's 
dcstroy'd," if there be the least defection in any part of it; 
so nicely is the whole balanced, and so entirely does one 
part depend, for its order and even existence, upon the 
other component parts with which it is allied. 

"From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 
"Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike; 
"And, if each system in gradation roll, 
"Alike essential to th' amazing whole, 
"The least confusion but in one, not all 
"That system only, but the whole must fall. 
"Let earth, unbalanced, from her orbit fly, 
"Planets and suns run lawless through the sky — 
"Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, 
"Being on being wrecked, and world on world; 
"Heaven's whole foundations to their center nod, 
"And nature tremble to the throne of God." — 

And, as says the poet Young, — 

" final ruin 

"Fiercely drive her ploughshare o'er creation." 

Having witnessed the benign influence of "Heaven's first 
law," as exhibited in the admirable order of the Universe, 
and contemplated the possible consequences, which would 
result from the infraction of this "law," we will now proceed 
to demonstrate, by various illustrations, that "order" should 
be the "first law" of every human government; and to de- 
monstrate, that it should be inscribed upon the pillars of 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 289 

every throne, and be drawn over the archway of every se- 
nate-house and temple of justice. Look abroad among the 
nations. Consult the character of their governments and 
their institutions. Select from among them one, if there be 
such an one, the "administration of whose internal and ex- 
ternal affairs, and the regulation of whose every policy, is the 
legitimate result of the unimpeded operations of this law of 
order. The constituted authorities of such a kingdom or 
nation can be convicted of no mal-ad ministration. All the 
functionaries of such a government march forward, with the 
most perfect regularity, in the performance of their duties. 
There is heard no exclamation against favoritism and par- 
tiality — no bitter complaints against injustice. Perfect 
equity is administered to all — to the high as well as the low, 
the rich as well as the poor, the honorable as well as the 
dishonorable. Inalienable rights are guarantied to the in- 
dividuals possessing them, bylaws, which, like the decrees 
of the Medes and Persians, alter not. No power, but such 
an one as would overturn the govei'nment, can wrench away 
those rights. Its Magistrates cannot be corrupted by bri- 
bery; and its Judges will determine what is right and what 
is wrong, in an equal balance, and administer justice with 
most inflexible impartiality. Hit may demand a doubt, wheth- 
er such a government exist. But, if it do exist any where 
upon the wide globe, give me a residence under its benign 
influence, though it should even be situated amid the snows 
of Scytliia, or among the Alpine hills of Switzerland, or upon 
the bleak coast of Labrador. For there liberty reigns — yes, 

"Liberty, that power supremely bright, 
"Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight. 
"Perp'tual pleasures in her presence reign, 
"And smiling plenty leads her wanton train. 
"Eas'd of its load, subj clion grows more light; 
"And poverty looks cheertul in her sight, 
".-"he makes the gloomy face of nature gay, 
"Gives beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. 

To this description of a nation, the government of which 
is based upon the grand principle of order, I would contrast 
37 



4 



290 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

one wliere no sort of order or government prevails — where 
either despotism or anarchy reign unrivaled and uncontroled 
— where one person substitutes his own will for law, or where 
one set of masters and of laws are rapidly swept away and 
succeeded by another set, who, in their turn, are destined 
to be swept away and succeeded, as waves — 
" dash and die upon the shore." 

The unrivaled sway of despotism may be instanced by the 
reign of Nero, the sixth Emperor of Rome, and the last of 
the family of the Cesars. In the absence of all order and of all 
law, except his own will, bloody were the tragedies which he 
enacted ; fearfully dark was the page of most horrible enor- 
mities, which he gave to history. He opened the scenes 
of those tragedies by murdering his own mother, because 
she opposed a feeble barrier to the flood tide of his vicious 
inclinations. Many of his courtiers shared her unhappy fate, 
and all, who obstructed his pleasure, were sacrificed to his 
fury or caprice. The palace and its splendors, he would 
leave at night, for the meanest taverns, the lowest scenes 
of debauchery, and nocturnal riots in the streets of Rome, 
with the veriest blackguards and ruffians. In short, after 
committing enormities so unnatural and so horrible, as to 
blacken any page and almost ptillute the mouth that should 
rehearse them, he crowned the climax by a deed, which 
has given an everlasting infamy to his memory. Having 
read an account of the burning of Troy, he wished to re- 
present that dismal scene, and he, therefore, caused Rome 
to be set on fire in several different places. The conflagra- 
tion soon became universal, and during nine successive days, 
the fire continued. All was desolation : nothing was heard 
but lamentations of mothers, whose children had perished in 
the flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall 
of palaces and buildings. Nero was the only one who en- 
joyed the general consternation. He placed himself upon 
the top of a high tower, and played on his lyre, while he 
sung the destruction of Troy; a dreadful scene which his 
barbarity had realized before his eyes. These are the le- 
gitimate fruits of the infraction of "Heaven's first law." 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 291 

Another instance of the infraction of this law may be 
witnessed, by a reference to France in seventeen hundred 
and ninety. Then anarchy swayed her scepter instead of 
despotism. 

One set of masters and laws followed and displaced an- 
other set of masters and laws, like the successive waves of 
the sea. No description, which genius could give, would 
be sufficiently graphic, to convey a perfectly vivid idea of 
the complete inversion of order, and the consequences most 
horrible which resulted from that inversion. That, indeed, 
was the grand carnival of human fiends, and the unfettered 
heyday of all the worst passions of man. Never did greater 
madness rage on earth; it seemed as if all the laws of nature 
were at once reversed : to crown the triumph of moral, and 
political insanity, a festival was proclaimed for Reason; re- 
ligion was openly renounced; the institution of the sabbath 
was abolished; national airs were substituted for the songs 
of David; death was decreed, by the constituted authorities, 
to be an eternal sleep; and a female of ill fame was placed, 
as the goddess of their idolatry, upon the altar of Notre 
Dame. As might have been reasonably expected, the streets 
of Paris literally ran with blood, the Seine flowed down 
crimsoned with human victims to the Bay of Biscay, and 
within three years, more than three millions were mercilessly 
immolated upon the altars of anarchy. 

Some apology may seem necessary for the space occupied 
by remarks, preparatory to the subject, which was proposed 
for discussion. But, when it is considered that our endea- 
vor has been to bring before the mind, in as vivid a point of 
light as possible, the importance of order, and the contras- 
ted deleteriousness of disorder, it is presumed that it will 
not be regarded as altogether irrelevant. We have seen, 
from the regularity exhibited in the operations of nature^ 
as well as from the wholesomeness of a well administered 
government, that happiness and harmony, are the invariable 
result of order, and cannot exist without it. By contrast, we 
have also seen, in a supposable instance, from — 

". the wreck of matter and the crush of uorUls" — 



292 I^ECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

as well as, in a real case, from the disorders produced by- 
despotism, in the one extreme of mal-administration, and by 
anarchy in the other, as exhibited in the reign of Nero, and 
in the French Revolution, that "where confusion is, there is 
every evil work," and every evil consequence. 

We now come to the more particular consideration of one 
branch of the subject, proposed for discussion, in the present 
Lecture, and shall illustrate it by examples of different 
kinds of government in families, and their different results. 
1. In the first place, I will give an instance, illustrative 
of despotism, in family government. Mr. A. was a native 
of Massachusetts, and resided in one of the mountain towns, 
near the western section of the state. He possessed real 
estate to the amount of four hundred acres, free of incum- 
brance, and was an industrious and thriving farmer, who 
lived independently. Sterling integrity, most rigid honestj 
in all his dealings with his neighbors, unimpeachable vera- 
city, and public spiritedness, were the prominent traits of 
his character. By his acquaintance and friends, he was 
esteemed, and respected, and often was he elevated by the 
suflfrages of his fellow-townsmen, to the highest post of honor 
and responsibility, in their gift. Abroad, among his friends 
and acquaintance, and even among strangers, he had the 
reputation of being affable and courteous in his deportment, 
and sociable and agreeable, in his intercourse with others. 
But, at home, he was otherwise. At that period of his history, 
of which I am speaking, he had six sons and five daughters. 
The eldest was twenty years of age, and the youngest two. 
These he, no doubt, intended to "train up in the way that 
they should go." He intended to make them respectable, 
and qualify them to take a high and honorable standing in 
society, for he possessed no small share of family pride and 
ambition. The best advantages, which their native town 
could afford them, for acquiring an education, were granted 
them; and when they had arrived at a proper period of life, 
and had made sufficient proficiency in a common country 
school, they were sent, for three or four quaj'tcrs, to the best 
boarding school wl^ich the region, for Wily miles around, affor- 



LECTURES ON EniTCATION. 993 

ded. Although the parent thus spared no reasonable pains 
nor expense, to qualify liis children to take a high standing 
in society, and provided, in abundance, every thing which 
was required, to supply their every necessity — altliough he 
"rose up early, and sat up late, and ate the bread of careful-* 
ness," that he might procure the means — and, although, by 
so doing, he evinced strong affection for his offspring, which, 
doubtless, possessed his bosom; yet, when we follow him into 
the domestic circle, and take notice of his deportment before 
his family, and the method of government, which he adop- 
ted, we may be led to draw different conclusions. Not from 
any cruelty of disposition, doubtless, nor from any naturally 
forbidding traits of character, (for we have seen, that, when 
abroad, he could shake off all gloomy reserve, and exhibit, 
in his deportment, affability, courteousness, and sociability,) 
but from a mistaken notion of the most appropriate method 
of "ruling well his household," he, as it were, sat upon the 
imperial throne of the domestic dominion, dark, stern, 
haughty, distant, and forbidding. From that throne, he pro- 
mulgated the statutes of his empire, in miniature. His word 
was law — law which could not be repealed, any more than 
the decrees of the Medcs and Persians, although, by its ope- 
rations, it should appear wrong and unreasonable. There 
was no reversion of his decisions — no appeal from them. 
This mode of government, perhaps, miglit have been regar- 
ded by the subjects of it, as most appropriate, had its rigors 
been mitigated., and »softencd, by an easy familiarity of inter- 
course, and by explaining the propriety and the reasons of 
each law and mandate, and by showing their essentiality in 
promoting the welfare of all concerned. He could have 
been thus familiar, and thus have showed that each law and 
mandate, however harsh and rigorous they miglit seem, were 
the result of an anxious desire to effect their highest good, 
and, at the same time, have maintained his dignit}', as gov- 
ernor of the family, aiid have received all the respect, reve- 
rence, and obedience, due to his station. When returning 
from his business, or his labor, at night, had he snatched up 
little John, and little Susan, and dandled them on his knee, 



294 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

or told them interesting little stories, and anecdotes, while 
the other smiling urchins crowded around and listened with 
deep attention, he would not have detracted one iota from 
his superiority, nor lost one particle of his influence over 
them, but would have increased it, tenfold. When return- 
ing, after an absence from home, the little prattlers would 
have run forth, with exultation, to meet him, and anticipate 
the expected kiss, and would have hailed his coming with 
emotions of irrepressible joy. But, he could not thus conde- 
scend from that distance, and that dark, and reserved dig- 
nity, which he fancied that he ought to maintain. He avoi- 
ded every thing like familiarity — seldom did he converse 
with them, except to command, or to explain his commands, 
and make inquiries respecting the performance of the duties 
enjoined upon them. And, never did he explain the pro- 
priety, and the reasonableness of his laws and mandates. It 
was sufficient that they were the dictates of his sovereign 
pleasure, and must he done. No free, unrestrained conversa- 
tion passed, round the family circle, during the long winter 
evenings, while he sat in his great arm chair, drawn up in 
all the haughtiness of state, dark, gloomy, and retiring — 
manifesting no apparent communion with the beings, and 
the objects, around himj and appearing with perfect indiffe- 
rence, except as he had occasion, by a stern look, or a nod, 
to rebuke any symptoms of animation, or of sprightliness, 
around him. The buoyancy of youth was fettered, and fro- 
zen, by restraint. Conversation passed round the circle, if 
it passed at all, in a whisper. No filial, or child-like confi- 
dence, was reposed in the forbidding person, who thus, in 
haughty solitariness, occupied the chair of state. His ear 
was closed to their familiarities. Their advances towards 
sociability M^ere met by a cold look of reproof. They hated 
this restraint. They felt that they were imprisoned. No 
warm glance of affection thrilled their bosoms, towards the 
person, who thus abridged their freedom. They trembled 
around him, like cringing slaves, knowing that the most tri- 
fling fault, or infraction of family law, whether designed, or 
accidental, would not only meet with severe reproof, but, in 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 295 

most cases, with castigation. When returning, after absence, 
were it short or long, no child ran forth to meet him, and if 
he was welcomed back at all, with a smile, it was a cold 
one. That family, almost without exception, looked forward 
to the period, when the laws of the land would release them 
from parental dominion, with something of the feeling, with 
which the captive of the Algerine, who is chained to the oar 
of a galley, looks forward to some distant prospect of ran- 
som and deliverance. They almost counted the days, hours, 
and minutes, which intervened. To most of them, that pe- 
riod has arrived, and passed. They have gone forth for them- 
selves, and most of them are now engaged in the active scenes 
of life. We naturally inquire, now, what influence that mode 
of family government had upon their dispositions and habits. 
They are, indeed, most of them, rigidly moral, and have 
high sentiments of honor and integrity. But, abroad, as well 
as at home, they are the same dark, stern, gloomy, compan- 
ionless, unsocial, solitary beings, their father was before 
them, as he presided over the domestic circle. The flood- 
tide of feeling and sympathy seems to have been frozen into 
an iceberg, in their youth, and frozen it remains, like the 
everlasting glaciers of the noi-th pole. Their souls are wrap- 
ped round and round, with ten thousand foldings of selfish- 
ness. Beyond the circumscribed sphere of their own pri- 
vate aims and their own individual interests, they look not 
— beyond that sphere, they seem to care for nothing, either 
upon earth or in heaven. Passion, in their bosoms, is a tor- 
nado, that would sweep all before it, or else a volcanic erup- 
tion, that would remorselessly pour it> burning rocks and 
melted lava upon every object within the circumference of 
its influence. Friends and acquaintance, brothers and sis- 
ters, wife and children, all, alike, feel its blighting influence, 
and the effects of its wrathful outpourings. Such, with few 
exceptions, are the results of despotism in family government. 
The image of the father, as he appears, uniformly, in the 
presence of his household, is thus, in nine cases out of ten, 
enstamped upon the offspring; and, when grown up to man- 



396 LECTUUES ON EDUCATION* 

hood, they exhibit the distinctive and prominent outlines of 
that image, ahiiost feature for feature. 

2. We will adduce an instance, illustrative of anarchy in 
its milder form, as exhibited in family government. Mr. 
and ACrs. C. were emigrants from New England to tbe nor- 
thern part of Ohio. By means of some small legacies, united 
to the profits of their industry, they had raised a family of 
several children, and had at a certain period, possessed a 
property in real estate, to the amount of one or two thou- 
sand dollars. But owing to losses, and to some difference 
of opinion between Mr. and Mrs. C. respecting their man- 
agement of this property, or to some other causes combi- 
ned with those, it was, at length, all swept away from them, 
and they were reduced, in their pecuniary circumstances, to 
poverty. To give a full delineation of the characters, dis- 
positions and hahitsof Mr. and Mrs. C. would require more 
space and prominence, than could be given to them in the 
present connection; suffice it, therefore, to remai-k, that 
they were tolerably correct in their moral sentiments and 
conduct, and exhibited before their household examples of 
integrity and honesty in their commercial dealings with their 
fellow men. But while Mr. C. considered, that he was, 
both by the laws of nature and the laws of revelation, the 
constituted governor, head and manager of the family, and 
that the constitution, which guarantied to him the right of 
being governor, head, and manager, required an implicit ac- 
quiescence, not only on the part of the other members of 
the family, but, in a certain degree, on the part of the wife 
herself; Mrs. C. thought, that the injunction of the apostle, 
that wives should be in subjection to their husbands, or obey 
them as the rightful lords of the family, in the same manner 
as Sarah of old obeyed Abraham, and thus set a pattern for 
her daughters in every after age, was not intended to be bin- 
ding upon wives of the present daj. She conceived, that it 
must have been meant for females of olden times, inas- 
much as they could not have been so well educated, nor 
have known so much, nor have, in consequence, been so 



LECTUIIES ON EDUCATION. 297 

capable of governing and managing, as their more enlight- 
ened and more politic daughters of the present illuminated 
age. She conceived that, as circumstances alter, laws and 
constitutions themselves should alter, and that it was now 
proper, therefore, that there should be a partnership of 
controlling influence over family affairs, between the hus- 
band and the wife, and that the government should be equa- 
lized between the two. To this doctrine Mr. C. of course 
objected conscientiously, as being contrary to tlie true spirit 
of the sacred text. Both parties considered their rights en- 
croached upon, and both protested against that encroach- 
ment. The interchange of protestations, of criminations 
and of recriminations, from trifling differences of opinion, 
proceeded to serious altercation, and, at length, to down- 
right boisterous wrangling. This scene of contention was 
not confined to the closet, or to curtain-lectures, but was 
enacted, daily, before the eyes of the whole family. That 
scene may be illustrated in this manner: — Little Harriet 
comes to her father, and asks him if she may go into the 
garden and pick some fruit. Being fatigued with his work, 
or made fretful by witnessing certain exhibitions of conju- 
gal affection, which those, enjoying the blessedness of the 
matrimonial state, are sometimes destined to witness, he tells 
little Harriet that she shall not go into the garden, nor pick 
a single apple or peach. The girl cries, and runs to her 
mother. Mrs. C. pities the "dear little angel," and wonders 
how her father can be so cruel and hard-hearted, towards 
his children. "Here, Harriet, my darling," says she, "you 
shall not be treated so cruelly. Don't cry. Mother will 
give yousome of those fine pippins, and rare-ripes, in yonder 
fruit-basket." At another time, being in a generous mood, 
Mr. C liberally bestows upon Harriet, that same "dear lit- 
tle angel," that the indulgent mother pitied so much, a piece 
of cake, or some sweetmeats. But, the mother, being by no 
means in one of the sweetest and loveliest frames of mind, 
bursts forth in a torrent of invective, against such miserable 
management. "Why, Mr. C. I am astonished at your waste- 
fulness, and want of economyr% No wonder that we are so 
38 



298 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

poor, when you make so free with such costly food. If it 
were not for my management, we should all go to ruin, and 
be obliged to beg for a living, or become town paupers. Be- 
sides, I would have you to know, Mr. C. that you are spoil- 
ing the children, by your indulgence. Oh dear! they will 
go to ruin. See how impudent and saucy, that little brat 
of a Harriet is, as well as all the rest of the children. I tell 
you, Mr. C. that you are ruining the children, notwithstan- 
ding all my efforts to make them respectable. Oh! you will 
break my heart." In the same manner, if Mr. C. happen- 
ed for any misdemeanor, to punish Horatio, with a rod, the 
child would run to its mother, and, to compensate it for suf- 
fering such cruel treatment, and to still its piteous cries and 
moanings, Mrs. C. would give the offended darling a lump 
of sugar. In process of time, when it had become sufficiently 
obvious, that neither would relinquish their supposed right to 
govern, there seemed to be a mutual cessation of hostilities, 
and what they could not agree to do in the capacity of a part- 
nership, they seemed to have agreed to omit altogether, as 
they permitted their offspring to live and act as they listed, 
without correcting their misdemeanors. Being conscious, 
themselves, of failure in government, they could not bear, 
that others should supply their deficiencies in duty, and go- 
vern their children. It they happened to be punished in 
school, and often did they deserve it, Mr. and Mrs. C. would 
invariably find fault with the teacher, were he ever so rea- 
sonable in his punishment, and did he have ever so great a 
provocation, and they would defend their darlings. If any 
person happened to point out, to these faulty parents, the 
vicious habits, which were disgracing their offspring, and 
urge the necessity of the correction of those habits, Mr. and 
Mrs. C. particularly the latter, would esteem and treat such 
an interference, with their family affairs, as a gross personal 
insult to themselves, and would, in a thousand ways, extenu- 
ate the conduct of their children, and exculpate them from all 
blame, asserting that they were not guilty of any, except such 
as poor, frail, fallible "ilesh is heir to." Now, what was the 
natural sequel of such management? Why, the sons were 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 299 

coarse and vulgar, in their manners; — having no principles 
of self-government, they were the subjects of "heedless ram- 
bling impulse;" and they grew up, disreputable, and disa- 
greeable members of the several communities, among whom 
they resided. The daughters were pert, bold, and forward; 
— unchaste, and immodest, in behavior; — exhibiting all the 
unlovely, indelicate, and graceless traits, of a groveling- 
minded female. These were the legitimate effects of such 
laxity and government in the management of a family, as 
were obvious in the domestic circle of Mr. and Mrs. C. 

3. We will now adduce an instance o{ anaixhy in its dar- 
ker and more revolting aspect, as exhibited in domestic gov- 
ernment. Mr. D. resided, with his family, in one of the 
towns in Dutchess county, in the state of New York. This 
man was grossly unprincipled, in morals, and, as similarities 
in character, as well as in taste, are often the basis of matri- 
monial alliances,, Mrs. D. was as unprincipled as himself. 
One circumstance, which had a tendency to add great 
strength to their corrupt principles, was the occupation of 
the master of the family. He w^as foreman in an extensive 
distillery. Being necessarily associated with the vilest of 
the vile, in his employment, he daily contracted fresh mo- 
ral pollution, and carried its deadly contagion home with 
him, into the bosom of his family. Sometimes, in his inter- 
course with the domestic circle, which was composed of four 
sons and three daughters, he would be extremely familiar, 
condescend to lay aside all proper parental dignity, become 
one of their fellows in sport, and relate, for their amusement 
and diversion, lewd and indecent anecdotes and stories, un- 
til the loud and boisterous laugh rung through his habita- 
tion. At other times, he would exhibit, in his conduct, all 
the savagencss and unmercifulness of an Algerine taskmas- 
ter, and beat his children, like cattle, for attempting to 
practice upon those lessons, which he, both by precept and 
example, had taught them. Thus, was he as variable as 
the wind, in the management of his family affairs, and was 
continually verging from one extreme to another. Some- 
times, he was familiar to a fault, and, at other times, he was 



300 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

as boisterous as a North-Wester, in December. The results 
of this method of conduct, were most ruinous. The sons, in 
process of time, set the authority of their father at defiance, 
left that habitation, in which they had been trained up in 
the way they should not go, became strolling, miserable 
vagabonds, and some are now imprisoned for crime, some 
have died drunkards, and others arc still abroad in the world, 
scattering around them, in a moral point of view, "firebrands, 
arrows, and death," and ripening for the penitentiary, the 
dungeon, or the halter. The daughters grew up, a black 
disgrace to womankind, and AA^ere guilty of indecencies and 
crimes, of which no modest person could speak without 
blushing, and a description of which, upon paper, would 
pollute the very page where it was sketched. Suffice it to 
remark, that, after a life of shameless, and nameless vice, 
they experienced the truth of the proverb, that "the way of 
the transgressors is hard," and most of them died loathsome 
and miserable deaths. Even the wretched, besotted hus- 
band and wife, have both gone down to an ignoble grave, 
with the curses and execrations of their ruined children rest- 
ing upon their heads. Thus, has the scene closed with dark- 
ness, infam}^, and blood. These are thy legitimate effects, 
Oh Anarchy ! These, are thy trophies, Oh immorality ! May 
the number of such scenes be decreased in our land, before 
their results shall have become tremendously fearful, and the 
bright sun of our freedom shall have gone down in an ocean 
of blood. 

4. We will now look at a brighter picture, and will ad- 
duce an instance, illustrative of order in its loveliest aspect, 
as exhibited in family government. Mr. H. was a native 
of Connecticut. He received, from his father, one of the 
best of men, a good education, and, at his decease, a small 
legacy, which, with the additions made to it by his own in- 
dustry, amounted to a moderate fortune. He had been 
"trained up in the way he should go," and the consequence 
was, that he possessed one of the happiest dispositions, uni- 
ted the utmost courteousness of manners and affability of 
deportment, with inflexible firmness and decision of charac- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION 301 

ter, and was esteemed and beloved by all, who came within 
the sphere of his acquaintance. At the age of twenty- 
five, he became allied, in the bonds of matrimony, to the 
beautiful, accomplished, talented, and lovely Miss Katha- 
rine S. The attachment, which formed the basis of this 
union, was produced by similarity of tastes and dispositions, 
and, in consequence, was the author of the most felicitous 
results. They thought alike, and acted together, in the gov- 
ernment of that lovel}" family of four sons and four daugh- 
ters, which, in process of time, grew up around them. There 
was no appeal from the decisions of the one, to the sympa- 
thies and decisions of the other. With most perfect acqui- 
escence, the wife consented, that the husband should, accor- 
ding to the immutable laws of nature, and of revelation, be 
the governor of his family, and, uniformly deferred all diffi- 
cult cases to this supreme tribunal. Nor, was he unworthy 
of such confidence, nor incompetent to make righteous deci- 
sions. In his method of government, he amalgamated the 
bland and the gentle, with the firm and the inflexible. 
Whenever he gave a command, he always explained its ne- 
cessity, reasonableness, and propriety', in such a manner, 
that his children acquiesced, without a murmur. When- 
ever he had occasion to administer reproof, he never did it 
in anger, but attempered it with kindness, and was perfectly 
cool, deliberate, and passionless. Often did he talk famil- 
iarly with his offspring, or call them around him, and relate 
to them anecdotes illustrative of good and bad actions, and 
of virtuous and immoral characters, draw from them natural 
reflections, and thus made examples a sort of beacon-light 
"to warn off the heedless navigator, from destruction." In 
order to make the child obedient, he chose rather to disci- 
pline the mental, than the animal nature — to enlighten and 
persuade the reason, rather than to scourge the body, and 
thus to instill, into the pliant, docile mind of youth, princi- 
ples of self-government, which should exert an influence more 
lasting, than corporeal punishment, inasmuch as it would 
abide when the rod of correction should have been removed, 
and its fear become powerless. This should be adopted 



302 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

only in extreme cases, as a dernier resort^ after milder meas- 
ures shall have proved ineffectual. The effect of this method 
of family government, which meets with my unqualified ap- 
probation, has, no doubt, been anticipated, by the reader. 
If Solomon's words be true, it could have been no otherwise 
than very felicitous. It was so. The whole of that family, 
without an exception, have grown up, become settled in life, 
and occupy respectable, I may say, honorable stations in soci- 
ety. Like their father, they unite suavity of manners, with 
firmness of purpose, and decision in action. They are esteem- 
ed, respected, and beloved, by all who know them, and 
their aged father and mother, happy in the enjoyment of 
the society of such children, are descending to the grave, 
like a shock of corn, fully ripe, and — 

"Calm as summer evenings be." 

Did our limits admit, we might have given a more full and 
complete history of the several families we have brought into 
notice, in this Lecture, and might have cited other instances, 
illustrative of the different shades of good and bad manage-- 
ment of household affairs. But, the instances we have noti- 
ced, will suffice to illustrate the three grades in family gov- 
ernment — despotism, anarchy, and order. Of the deleterious- 
ness of the two former, and the vast and vital importance of 
the latter, there can be but one opinion, when their effects 
are brought fairly and fully before the mind, and there con- 
trasted, and illustrated by living examples. 

We now pass, by a natural gradation, to the considera- 
tion of government in schools, which is intimately allied 
with government in families. The one depends for its exis- 
tence, very materially, upon the other. If the one be lax 
and anarchical, so must be the other, in a greater or lesser 
degree. If the child be ill-governed at home, he will be 
troublesome in school, and so on the other hand, if he be ill- 
governed in school, he will be troublesome at home.. For this 
reason, I have considered family and school government 
together in this connection. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 303 

Did our limits permit, we might give a full description of 
two individual examples of well and ill regulated semina- 
ries of learning, and contrast the benefits of the one, with 
the deleteriousness of the other. But, our near approximation 
to the close of this Lecture, admonishes us not to attempt 
it. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to some general 
directions respecting the regulation of schools. For the 
sake of arrangement and perspicuity, we will sketch the 
prominent outlines of those directions, and afterward, 
consider each individual outline in its appropriate order. 

1. Teachers should govern themselves. 

2. Scholars should be considered and treated as reasonable 
beings, 

3. There should be no Jluctuation in government* 

4. Laws should be simple^ decided^ and unalterable. 

5. They should be administered with the strictest impar- 
tiality. 

6. Affectionate kindness should be amalgamated withjirmness 
in their administration. 

1. Teachers should govern themselves. "If the instructor," 
as Hall sajs, "have little command over his own feelings — 
if he be angry at one time, fretful at another, easily excited 
to laughter at another — he cannot exhibit that firmness of 
purpose, which always commands respect. Correction, ad- 
ministered in anger, has no effect to humble or reclaim the 
offender. It sliows, even to a child, thai he who adminis- 
ters it, is guilty of a fault as great as his own. Temptations 
to excitement will, undoubtedly, occur. A scholar may be. 
impudent; — from his ignorance of good manners, or in a 
sudden gust of passion, he may, perhaps, grossly insult you. 
Hardly anything is more apt to call forth anger, than an in- 
sult from an inferior. But, still, the indulgence of anger is 
very unwise. If a pupil commit a fault, he ought certainly 
to be called to account; but, if the teacher, by an unmanly 
indulgence of passion, descend to the level of the child, he 
cannot expect to benefit him, materially, by any correction 
administered in such a state of mind." 



304 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

2. Scholars should be considered and treated as reasonable 
beings. I mean that they should be thus considered and trea- 
ted, in contra-distinction to the treatment, which beasts re- 
ceive, at the hand of their masters. At a very early period 
of life, the child begins to have moral perception, and can 
distinguish between what is right and wrong, in conduct. 
If, then, he have the faculty of moral discrimination, he can 
be enlightened as to his every duty as a scholar, and be 
made to acknowledge, and to feel, the force of obligation, 
by which he is bound to perform those duties. By ap- 
peals, to his conscience, of right and wrong, to his reason, 
and to his sense of propriety, he may be persuaded to ren- 
der that obedience, cheerfully and understandingly, which 
he could not, without great difficulty, be compelled to do, 
by the infliction of stripes. Moral persuasion, will exert a 
much more powerful and abiding influence over a mind or- 
dinarily ingenuous, than would ten thousand lashes upon 
the body. In granting the requests of a pupil, or in refusing 
to grant those requests, the teacher should decide upon the 
principle, that the person, who asks permission, is a rational 
being, and not solely because he has authority vested in his 
hands, and can administer it, irrespective of any principles 
whatever. If he i-efuse to grant requests, he should show 
the reasonableness of that refusal; and, if he grant them, he 
should show a consistent reason. Caprice, Avhim, and con- 
tingency, should never regulate these matters. Laws should, 
in like manner, as permissions and refusals, be founded upon 
reasonableness. Certain things should be enjoined as duty, 
while others should be forbidden, because the one is morally 
right, and the other morally wrong. By so doing, the great 
ends of government will be effectually secured. 

3. There should be no Jluctuation in govcrnmeiit. An uni- 
formity and immutability of procedure should, so far as hu- 
man frailty will permit, characterize all the operations of 
school, and all the mandates of the teacher. He should 
never forbid an action one day, and permit it the next. He 
should not consider a fault almost unpardonable one day. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 305 

and pass lightly over it the next. If he do so, to any ex- 
tent, he destroys all that confidence, which scholars should 
ever be constrained to repose in him, by witnessing a con- 
stant exhibition of his consistency. Tliere may, indeed, be 
periods, when lowncss of spirits, fatigue, head-ache, or some 
other affliction, shall diminish patience, and make the school 
appear vexatious. In such cases, there needs to be a double 
guard placed over all the passions, and feelings, lest they 
should become more irritable than conipon, and magnify 
trifling offences into grievous faults. 

4. Laws for the regulation of a school should he simple^ de- 
cided., and unalterable. 

They should be simple, both in meaning and phraseology, 
in order that scholars may be enabled to understand them, 
and, understanding them, may be induced to render obedi- 
ence to their requirements. 

They should be decided, in requiring universal and uncon- 
ditional submission to their mandates. It is presupposed, 
that those laws are right; that they enjoin nothing but what 
is proper, and forbid nothing but what is improper; enjoin 
nothing but what would promote the welfare of the person, 
who should yield obedience, and forbid nothing but what 
would do the person an injury, who should disregard the pro- 
hibition. They should, therefore, be decided — not connive 
at, or countenance the least transgression, but always de- 
mand and obtain, with most rigid inflexibility, suitable ac- 
knowledgments and concessions, from the offender. Let 
their requisitions be thus uniform and decided, and seldom 
will they be disregarded or despised, by the very hardiest 
and most resolute in mischief. 

Those laws should be unalterable as the decrees of the 
Modes and the Persians. They should grow out of the gen- 
eral fitness of things, and be sucli, as the imperative exigen- 
cies of human condition demand. Being so, there would 
not be a necessity created for their repeal or alteration, as 
circumstances should alter. Founded upon the inherent fit- 
ness of things, the mutation of circumstances and objects 
around, could not affect their immutability. They should, 
39 



306 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

therefore, be unalterable^ since no mutation of circumstances 
could sunder the ligatures of those obligations, which are 
imposed upon all, who come within their sphere. 

5. TTiose laws should be administered with the strictest impar- 
tiality. Nothing like favoritism should ever be admitted 
within the walls of a seminary of learning. For, if a tea- 
cher be unequal in the distribution of rewards and punish- 
ments — if he praise or blame, exculpate or criminate, with- 
out the strictest regard to merit or demerit — he cannot long 
retain the confidence of his pupils. They see daily exhibi- 
tions of palpable deficiencies in his character — seeing them, 
they feel that he is unqualified' for the station he occupies, 
andfasa natural consequence, he must soon lose his influ- 
ence over them. If laws be instituted at all, it is proper 
that they should be made for a//, as much as for one — that 
they should be equally obligatory upon all, irrespective of 
poverty or affluence, or difference of age. Partiality can- 
not be tolesated in school. Pupils are keen to detect it, 
and quick to resent it. If lawyer A's. son be merely repro- 
ved for the self-same offence, for which farmer B's. son is 
severely castigated, or if the little boy of eight is whipped, 
while the young man of eighteen is not even reprimanded 
for a similar fault, an outcry will assuredly be raised, as it 
ought, against such favoritism and injustice, and the public 
opinion of the school, will set in a strong current against 
the authority of such a teacher. True, it is impossible but 
that one pupil should be more dear than another, according 
as he was more docile, industrious, and deserving, than the 
other. The Instructor "cannot, and will not," as Hall says, 
"feel an equal regard for the obedient and the disobedient — 
for the docile and the perverse. But, notwithstanding this, 
he should be impartial. Though he cannot love an idle, 
heedless, and unmannerly boy, so much as the affectionate, 
studious, and obedient one, still, he governs them alike. 
When the good scholar commits a fault, if he neglect to call 
him to an account for it, and punish a less agreeable scholar 
for a similar offence, the latter will accuse him of injustice, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 307 

and with good cause. For, if he have made a law, it is for 
the whole school, and should be regarded by all." 

6. Affectionate kindness should be amalgamated zcith firm- 
ness^ in the administration of the lams. These qualities or 
characteristics, though they be dissimilar, are not inconsis- 
tent with each other, but may co-exist. While the pupil 
discovers, on the part of his instructor, the most inflexible 
determination to maintain the laws and regulations of school, 
in their inviolate purity, he should, at the same time, disco- 
ver, that such a determination does not result from the pride 
of authority, or from a desire to gratify his own pleasure, 
but, rather, results from a desire to benefit the pupil in the 
highest possible degree. This discovery will, almost inva- 
riably, have its desired effect. The pupil will perceive, that 
nothing is enjoined upon him, but what is right, and what 
will promote his benefit, and, at the same time, will per- 
ceive, that he must obey the injunction, without the possi- 
bility of avoiding it, because it is right and beneficial. Per- 
ceiving this, he will, in a great majority of instances, acqui- 
esce in all the injunctions and decisions of his teacher, with- 
out a murmur — will consider them wise, and just, and right, 
though they may, sometimes, criminate himself. 

Finally, in conclusion, I would remark, that, if "order be 
Heaven's first law" — if it be manifested by the js^onderful 
harmony of the universe of worlds^ — if it be the grand basis 
of all well regulated governments — if families can be re- 
spectable and happy, only just so far as it prevails in the 
domestic circle; — and so, on the contrary, if its inversion — 
disovAer — procured the expulsion from Heaven, of the apos- 
tate spirits — if it would destroy the equilibrium of the uni- 
verse, and make — 

"Planets and suns run lawless through the sky" — 

if it produced the horridest form of despotism the world 
ever saw, in the reign of Nero the bloody, and the most 
appalling anarchy, during the French Revolution — if it be 
the basis of family discord, contention, and disreputation — 
the one should by all means, be adopted, and the other avoi- 



308 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ded, in the regulation of schools. In them, the principles 
of self-government should most sedulously be instilled into 
the minds of the pupils; for, self-government is the grand 
basis of all that is noble, and "lovely, and of good report," 
in character. It is not only productive of individual happi- 
ness and respectability, but, as individuals in their collected 
capacity, constitute a nation, it, in consequence, gives solid- 
ity, strength, and perpetuity, to republics, inasmuch as they 
constitute the body politic, and if each individual of that 
body, govern himself zoe/Z, the whole body will be well 
governed. 



LECTURE X» 

SUBJECT — ^MANUAL LABOR IN SCHOOLS. 

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," although 
denounced against our progenitors in the garden for apos- 
tacy, and denounced in the form of a curse, has rather been 
proven, by the experience of all ages, to have been a bles- 
sing. By a reference to analogy, we infer that it was, doubt- 
less, intended for a blessing, although, to the apprehension of 
the fallen, it seemed to wear the aspect of a curse. It ap- 
pears to have been, in an especial manner, adapted, by the 
Eternal himself, to the exigencies of human condition. The 
very constitution of both physical and mental nature, seems 
to require that kind of exertion or muscular effort, in obtain- 
ing a livelihood, and earning our "daily bread," which shall 
force through those little tubes, which we call pores, that 
exhalation from the system, which is denominated "sweat." 
For, unless the requisitions of that primeval sentence are 
complied with, the consequences, to the mental and animal 
natures of the person, who refuses compliance, are almost 
invariably deleterious. Unless muscular exertion, in^ some 
kind of business or diversion, be sufficiently powerful and 
violent, for a considerable portion of time, during each day, to 
force perspiration, in a greater or lesser profusion, through 
the pores, the body languishes— the animal functions become 
diseased, in exact proportion to the want of exercise— the 
stomach either nauseates food, or refuses to digest it, and 
convey its nourishment to other parts of the system— the 
numerous nerves and muscles become irritable, for the want 
of appropriate action— the blood becomes impure and stagna- 
ted in the arteries— the strength and energy of the frame is 
prostrated— the mind sympathizes with the body in a cer- 



310 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

tain degree — the spirits are depressed — hypocondriac affec- 
tions conjure up, before the fancy, ten thousand images of 
poverty, disease, pain, and death, in all their horrid forms — 
the perceptions of the understanding become blunted and 
dull — the brilliancy of the imagination is bedimmed — the 
fire and blaze of vigorous thought gradually go out- — reason 
reels upon her throne — the will becomes imbecile in its dic- 
tations — and, both body and mind are laid in ruins. Speak- 
ing in general terms, this picture of the effects of indolence 
and wsLTit of exercise, upon the physical and mental natures, 
although highly colored, is not over-w^rought. Physicians 
and other men, who have had opportunities to make exten- 
sive observations, uniformly testify to the correctness of this 
assertion. If Ave witness the dissection of a human subject, 
by the anatomist, and take notice of the peculiar construc- 
tion of the bones, nerves, muscles, and other animal functions, 
especially that one which is denominated the skin, we shall 
come to the conclusion, that man was made for action — that 
his constitution absolutely and imperatively demands it — 
and, that the growth of the body cannot be promoted, nor 
health be preserved, without it. Although the limits of this 
Lecture would not admit of a complete anatomical descrip- 
tion of the construction and various functions of the human 
subject, yet, for the sake of throwing light upon this impor- 
tant subject, and illustrating it, we may appropriately intro- 
duce a few observations upon the physiology of the skin. It 
is the external covering of the animal body. "The impres- 
sions made upon it," says the Journal of Health, "b}^ the 
contact of foreign substances, are transmitted to the brain, 
by means of the nerves coming from this latter, and give rise 
in the mind to the sensations of roughness or smoothness, 
hardness or softness, heat or cold, according to the property 
of the substance applied." In other words, the skin is the 
seat of the sense of touch — and, like all the other senses, is 
capable, when strongly impressed, of acting powerfully on 
the brain, and producing great mental disturbance, accom- 
panied, in some cases, with convulsions; and, in others, go- 
ing on to insanity. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 311 

For the better understanding of the differences in the 
delicacy of touch, in different regions of the slcin, as well as 
of its other offices, we shall initiate our readers into the se- 
crets of its structure. The skin is composed of two mem-' 
branes. with a soft semi-gelatinous layer intervening. The 
deepest, or that next to, and immediately covering the flesh, 
is tolerably firm and resisting; and, at the same time, some- 
what elastic. It exhibits numerous holes, through which 
pass from its inner or lower surface, to its upper or outer one, 
a vast number of nerves and vessels, (some carrying blood, 
some a colorless fluid,) of thread-like fineness, which are 
then spread in a reticulated, or net-like fashion, over its up- 
per surface, so as completely to cover it. The proof of this 
is seen in the fact, that although this membrane or layer of 
the skin has of itself little or no color or sensibility, yet it is 
impossible to apply a pin's point to any part of the surface 
without its producing sensation, and, if carried deep enough, 
drawing blood. The vessels and nerves thus penetrating, 
and spread over it, bear the same relation to this membrane, 
that embroidery composed of thread closely worked and 
crossed in various directions, would to the muslin which ser- 
ved for its ground. — Thus furnished, this part is called the 
true skin, because it is the scat of touch; and on, and through 
it, are performed all the processes in which the skin, in gene- 
ral, is supposed to bear a part. 

"Exterior to this, and spread over it, is the soft semi-gela- 
tinous, or pulpy layer, already mentioned. It is the seat of 
color, being white, or nearly so, in the European races, and 
black in the African. It is also^much thicker in the latter 
than in the former. In all the races, the true skin is of the 
same color; the difference consists in the mucous, or pulpy 
layer above it — just as if different pieces of embroidered 
muslin, originally all while, were each to receive a different 
color, by rubbing over it a semi-fluid varnish, which should 
only cover the outside, without penetrating through, or dying 
the tissue of the muslin, or the thread used in the embroi- 
dery. 



313 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

"External to this mucous, or soft layer, is spread the outer, 
or scarf-skin, or cuticle. This is the last of the memhranes, 
or coats; it is very thin, of a hard, horny texture, similar to 
the nails, and transparent, so as to show the color of the 
layer beneath it, already described. Some have compared 
it, erroneously, to scales; but it is a continuous membrane, 
which may indeed cast off small plates, or scales, as we see 
in certain diseases, or after very strong friction of the skin. 
It exhibits numerous perforations for the hair, and orifices 
through which oozes out the fluid of perspiration, formed 
from the minute capillary tubes of the true skin already de- 
scribed. As the part which is in immediate contact with 
external substances, the scarf-skin serves to obtend the vio- 
lence of their shock, and prevent the impression produced 
by them from being too sensible and painful. If, by unac- 
customed friction, blisters are formed on the hands or feet, 
and we peel off immediately the skin which has been raised 
up, it is the outer or scarf-skin only that is removed; the true 
skin, red and tender, is seen beneath, sometimes with a very 
thin layer of colorless mucus on it, and sometimes entirely 
denuded.* This serves both to show the distinct nature of 
the two membranes, or coats, composing the skin, and that 
the inner is the really important one, while the outer, or 
horny, has no sensibility or vitality, and is merely a shield 
to the former. It is therefore thinner where the touch is 
most delicate, as at the end of the fingers. 

"Independent of its being the seat of the sense of touch, 
the skin has other offices by which it is closely connected 
with the stomach in digestfon, and the lungs in breathing. 
We must remember that it does not merely cover the body 
entirely, like as the shell does the egg, but that it is con- 
tinued into the nostrils and mouth, and becomes by a slight 
change, the membrane which lines the stomach and the 
lungs. The surface of the tongue will give us no bad idea 
of the true skin, when the outer or scarf is removed. Little 
prominent buds, as it were, arc seen in both the tongue and 
the skin; they are called papillee, and are formed by a pro- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 313 

jection outwards of little knots of fine vessels and nerves, 
which have perforated the membrane from its lower side, 
and are even visible and felt through the scarf-skin when it 
is constricted by cold, forming what is called goose skin. 

"The resemblance between the skin and the membrane 
lining the mouth and stomach, almost amounts to identity in 
some animals of the polypus tribe; since,if they are turned 
inside out, what was skin serves for stomach, and the sto- 
mach is converted into skin. The connection between, and 
even sameness of, the skin and the membrane, to" which the 
air is applied in the lungs, in breathing, is evinced in the 
circumstance of the same or outer surface of the body serv- 
ing for both purposes, as in the leech. It has no lungs, and 
the air acts through its skin on the blood. 

"Some cold-blooded animals, such as frogs, will survive 
longer the entire extirpation of their lungs, than they would 
the removal of their skin. They barely live, if air be only 
supplied to the former, and not to the latter. In other words, 
they breathe both by their lungs and their skin. 

"In warm blooded animals, particularly in the human spe- 
cies, the skin exhales the same kinds of vapor, afterwards 
condensed into sweat, and air, as are given out in breathing 
from the lungs, and absorbs or allows to pass in through the 
mouths of very fine hair-like tubes, (in the true skin,) air and 
vapors, like what is necessary to be drawn into the lungs in 
breathing. 

"In addition to the parts already mentioned, we meet in 
certain regions of the skin, with small bodies like millet 
seeds, called sebaceous glands, interspersed with the papillas, 
or projecting blood vessels and nerves, and from which comes 
an oily and inflammable fluid. It is this which makes the 
water collect in drops on the skin, when we come out of the 
bath. 

"If we raise, by means of a blister, the scarf-skin, and peel 
it off, the true skin beneath, as already remarked, will be 
exposed, and in this instance, red and inflamed. Experi- 
ence shows that certain medicines applied to this denuded 
surface will produce the same effect as if taken into the sto- 
40 



3il4 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

mach. Thus, for example, quinia, or the active principle of 
the Peruvian bark, applied in this way, vi^ill cure intermittent 
fever; and morphia, or the active part of opium, procures 
ease and sleep. This is what is technically called the en- 
dermic medication. We notice it here with a view of illus- 
trating the functions of the skin — not as a hint or direction to 
any person for the cure of disease." 

According to this description of the physiology of the 
skin, whicli we have extracted from the Journal of Health, 
we perceive that the sanity and vigor of the system depend 
very much upon the salubrious condition of its various func- 
tions, and that exercise sufficiently violent and continuous to 
call into action the ten thousand little nerves and blood- 
vessels, is absolutely necessar}^, in order to promote and pre- 
serve that salubrious condition. For unless there be such 
exercise, it appears very manifest, without argument^ that 
those delicate and thread-like nerves and blood-vessels, 
which are spread so thickly over the surface of the body, 
must become torpid and inactive, the pores or orifices 
through which exudes the fluid of perspiration, become clo- 
sed by the diseased and glutinous condition of that fluid, the 
whole skin must lose that delicate hue and texture of com- 
plexion, which denotes health, become sallow, rough, and 
incrusted with a kind of withered substance, somewhat like 
tanned leather in appearance, and, as a consequence, the 
blood cannot circulate freely to the extremities, but is thrown 
back, in too full a current, upon the aching heart. That 
fluid, which should have been thrown off through the capil- 
lary tubes by perspiration, remaining in tlie system in an 
impure state, and thereby are created inward fevers, indi- 
gestion of food, torpidity of the stomach, inflammation of 
the lungs, languor of spirits, consumption, and premature 
death. 

We might, if time and space would permit, describe the 
effect which a want of suitable exercise would have upon 
the other animal functions — upon the circulation of the blood, 
and upon the action of the ten thousand muscles and nerves 
of the body, and the brain. But sufficient has been said, in 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 315 

illustration of that effect, to answer our present purpose. 
The reader will imagine the rest. 

If then, as we have seen, the sentence in Eden requires 
exercise — if the organization of our physical and mental na- 
tures demands it, in order to the promotion of their vigor and 
the preservntion of their healthfulncss, that sj'stem of educa- 
tion which would take the student from the farm and the 
workshop, and confine him within the walls of an Academy 
or College, for six or eight years, and there require him to 
study intensely, day after day, without requiring, at the 
same time, or even permitting^ vigorous exercise, is most un- 
philosophical and pernicious. 

By reviewing the histories of our Academies and Colleges, 
for scores of years past, we shall find this assertion abundantly 
proven by the iacis^ the appolling facts, which present them- 
selves to us, on the page of those histories. Look over their 
catalogues of promising young men, the flower and hope and 
pride of the land. The sun of how many went down, and 
was quenched in its mid-day splendors! What a majority, 
prematurely and suddenly, descended to the land of silence, 
just as they were beginning to attract attention by the bril- 
liancy of their genius and the fame of their talents! We 
perceive a vast disproportion between the bills of mortali- 
ty among students, and the bills of mortality among mechan- 
ics and husbandmen. And we perceive also, that even the 
majority of those students who live., drag a miserable and hy- 
pochondriac existence onward towards the grave. And 
what is the reason? Why did the sun go down at noon? 
Why was the student cut off prematurely and suddenly, 
just as he began to be prepared for usefulness and honorable 
promotion? Why did mortality rage among the votaries of 
science so much more than among laboring men? And why 
did those who survived the ravages of death in youth and 
middle age, experience so bitterly the legitimate effects of 
a shattered, broken constitution ? The answer may be given 
in one word — Inaction — yes. Inaction wrought all this deso- 
lation and death. Although the student might have occa- 
sionally sawed a little wood, or walked a mile or two, yet the 



316 . LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

exercise was not sufficient to communicate that friction to 
the skin, or exhale that fluid of perspiration, or give that ac- 
tion to the nerves and muscles, which nature requires. There 
followed, therefore, all the deleterious consequences of indo- 
lence, which we have heretofore described. 

Perhaps I cannot more appropriately and vividly portray 
the deleteriousness of that system of education, which has, 
ever since the dark ages, unnaturally disconnected labor 
and study, and confined the student to the gloominess and 
inaction of the cloister, than by taking an isolated subject of 
its effects, and embodying in my description of his academic 
and collegiate course, all the legitimate and pernicious influ- 
ences of that system. 

Mr. A. was the son of a respectable farmer, in one of the 
mountain towns of Massachusetts, where, among the rocks 
and roughness of the green hills of New England, he labored 
until he was eighteen. Having, while quite young, mani- 
fested a taste for reading and literary pursuits, his parents 
determined to give him a liberal education. Accordingly 
he left his father's house at the age of eighteen, and ex- 
changed the laborious employment of a mountain farmer, 
for the sedentary life of a student. He commenced the stu- 
dies preparatory to admission to College; and being naturally 
ambitious, and 

"Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts," 

he entered upon the classics, determined to take the lead of 
his classmates, and the highest station and honors of the in- 
stitution of which he was a member. By da}'^ and by night, 
he pored over his books with deepest intensity and most 
persevering application, leaving himself barely time suffi- 
cient for eating emd repose, but none, of material conse- 
quence, for exercise, labor, or recreation. As might have 
been expected from this gross infraction of nature's sanitary 
laws, in thus ceasing suddenly to exert those muscles and 
nerves which had, for twelve or fifteen years before, been al- 
most constantly, during his waking hours, called into most 
vigorous action, his appetite began to fail; the stomach cea- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 317 

sed to digest food with its accustomed vigor; pains and pul- 
monary symptoms began to inhabit tlie region of tlie chest; 
fevers and inflammations began occasionally to burn in the 
veins; the cheek lost its roseate hue of health, and becfime 
sallow, sunken, and colorless, except as the hectic flush 
spread over it; the voice, which was once clear and stento- 
rian, became weak and hoarse; and so debilitated did all 
the functions of animal life become, and so incapable were 
they, in consequence, of resisting the causes of disease, that 
a sudden shower, a foggy morning, a north east storm, or a 
cold blast of Boreas, would induce them, and implant, in the 
system, the seeds of the most wasting and desperate mala- 
dies. What a transformation! That young man who had 
not, during ten years of hard and unintermitted labor, known 
what it was to experience a sick day, or scarcely a sick 
hour — who could bound over the rocks and hills of New 
England, with the agility of a deer, and with the strength 
and sinew of a lion — who could, from morn till night, face 
the peltings of a pitiless northeaster, and fearlessly brave 
the bowlings and fury of the wildest winter storm that ever 
swept over the Green Mountains, without experiencing any 
harm — whose voice, as it issued from abroad chest and sten- 
torian lungs, was deep, clear, and sonorous — that young man, 
I say, was now in ruins — but the mere wreck of wliat he 
was. Yet, although disease had made fearful inroads upon 
his iron constitution, and bleacbed and sunken his ruddy 
cheek — although the image of death sat upon his counte- 
nance; he still pressed onward in his literary career, with 
the ignis fatuus of College honors blazing before him, and 
alluring him to a fearful destiny. But tlic mental action 
and the physical reaction being unequal, owing to a want of 
exercise sufticient to make it so, the equilibrium between 
the animal and intellectual natures was destroyed; and the 
mind having acquired superior force by means of more vig- 
orous exercise, acted like the shock of the battering ram in 
its operation, and by its concussions shattered the walls of 
the clay tabernacle in which it resided. About the middle 
of his collegiate course, being enfeebled by intense study 



318 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and a life of inaction, this young man was attacked by a 
nervous fever, which seemed to affect his mind as well as 
his body, and which, in a few dajs, brought him down to the 
very verge of the grave, so that his friends and his physician 
despaired, for some time, of his recovery. But his constitution, 
however, survived the shock of the disease, and he again 
left the sick room and bed of languishing. For several 
years after this recovery, he was afflicted with a certain sort 
of intellectual aberration, which not only unfitted him for 
study, but for almost every kind of business. From that 
shock he has now, in a partial degree, recovered, has forsa- 
ken all scientific pursuits, and is endeavoring to heal those 
deep-rooted maladies, the seeds of which were implanted in 
his system by study disconnected from labor and exercise. 
Often have I heard him, with deep drawn sighs and an effu- 
sion of tears, bewail the day he first saw a text-book of the 
classics, or entered within the walls of an Academy or Col- 
lege. "Oh!" he would exclaim, "what might I have been, 
had I but enjoyed sound health of body and mind ! When I 
left my father's house, the prospect before me was bright and 
glorious. Health mantled my cheeks with crimson. My form 
was erect and robust, and my step firm and elastic. I knew not 
sickness nor pain. I knew not depression of spirits, nor the 
dismal fears and forebodings of the miserable hypochondriac. 
But, when I entered upon my literary course, full of ambi- 
tion to acquit myself nobly, I determined, resolutely, and 
confidently expected, to distance my competitors, and win 
the highest honors of the collegiate course. I even looked 
forward to brilliant conquests, upon the political arena, and 
imagined that the day might come, when I should take my 
seat with senators in the halls of the Capitol, and, perad- 
venture, occupy the chair of the Chief Magistrate of this 
great and growing republic. For a while, I pressed on- 
ward, with untamed energy and resolution, and soon left, 
far behind me, many of those, who entered the lists of com- 
petition with me. Every day, and every hour, new intellec- 
tual prospects, and fresh visions of fame, and of glory, opened 
before my eye. I was delighted, ravished with the brilliant 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION 819 

scene, which my imagination pictured so brightly ahead. 
So enraptured was I, and so eager was I, to take the prize, 
which fancy had placed at the end of the literary course, that 
I scarcely gave myself time to take my necessary food and 
repose. But, alas! while I knew it not, a storm was rising, 
which would eclipse the bright sun, that then shone upon 
me, and vail, in impenetrable and perpetual darkness, all 
these brilliant prospects and visions. The seeds of fearful 
maladies were sown, which would soon vegetate into rank 
luxuriance. A deadly viper was gnawing at the seat of 
vitality, and sapping the foundations of an iron constitu- 
tion. My health suddenly failed, and, now, here I am, the 
poor, miserable wreck of a man — the sequel of this narra- 
tive, to me so full of tragic wo. I am a poor hypocondriac, 
the prey of ten thousand unstrung muscles and nerves, which, 
like so many vultures, are destroying all happiness; while, 
before my eye, there flits, in horrid array, by day and by 
night, myriads of sepulchral phantoms, and ghostly appari- 
tions. Would to heaven, that I now had the two thousand 
dollars, which I have expended in murdering myself — yes, 
literally murdering myself! With it, I might, now, engage 
in some mercantile business, by which I might procure a 
comfortable competence. But, as it is, I am unfitted for 
both study and business; I have expended my fortune in ac- 
quiring an education, and in paying my doctors' bills; and, 
now, I can do nothing, but encounter, with a proud spirit, 
the ills of poverty and dependence — yes, I say, to encounter 
those ills with a proud spirit, that will never stoop to beg the 
cold charities of a selfish world." So sa}ing, the young man 
burst into tears, and a flood of grief stopped his utterance. 
My heart bled for him, when I looked upon his haggard 
countenance, and fading form, and I involuntarily exclaim- 
ed, within myself, These, are thy trophies, O! cursed Inaction! 
Thus, have I drawn a faithful picture, of one of that mul- 
titude of students, who are continually traveling the same 
gloomy, cypress-shaded, road to the grave-yard. As an illus- 
tration of the truth of narratives similar to that above, I 
would quote a passage from the First Annual Report of 



320 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania, which will 
exhibit, in a striking manner, the effects of an inactive and 
sedentary life. 

"For twenty jears and more, the unnatural union of sed- 
entary, witli studious habits, contracted by the monastic sys- 
tem, has been killing in middle age. The Register of Edu- 
cation shows, in one year, one hundred and twenty-one 
deaths. Examine into the particular cases, and these Mall 
be found the undoubted effects of sedentary habits. Look 
at one name there. He had valuable gifts, perfected by 
two years' academic, four years' collegiate, and three years' 
theological studies. lie preached, gave much promise, and 
then died of a stomach disease. He contracted it when a 
student. He did not alternate bodily, with mental labor, or 
he had lived and been a blessing to the church. When he 
entered on his studies, he was growing into full size and 
strength. He sat down till his muscles dwindled, his diges- 
tion became disordered, his cliest contracted, his lungs con- 
gested, and his head liable to periodical pains. He sat 
away four years in College, and three years in theological 
application. Look at him nozo ! He has gained much use- 
ful knowledge, and has improved his talents, but he has lost 
his health. The duties to his mind and heart were done, 
and faithfully so, but those to his body vA^ere left undone. 
Three hundred and seventy muscles, organs of motion, have 
been robbed of their appropriate action, for nine or ten 
years, and now they have become, alike with the rest of his 
frame, the prey of near one hundred and fifty diseased and 
irritable nerves. And he soon dies of a disease, as common 
and fashionable, of late, as the studio-sedentary habit — a 
disease caused by muscular inaction. 

"Look at another case. Exposure, incident to the pastor, 
or missionary, has developed the disease in his chest, planted 
there when fitting for usefulness. He contracted a seden- 
tary, wlien he was gaining a studious habit. That which 
he sows, that shall he also reap. The east winds give him 
colds; a pulpit effort causes hoarseness and cough, oppres- 
sion and pain. He becomes alarmed and nervous. His 



LECTirUES ON EDUCATION. 321 

views of usefulness begin lo be limited. He must now go by 
direction, and not so much to labor, where otherwise he 
would have been most wanted, as to nurse his broken con- 
stitution. And he soon adds to the lamentable list of Mys- 
terious Providences — to the number of innocent victims ra- 
ther, of cultivating the mind and heart at the unnecessary 
and sinful expense of the body — to tlie number of loud calls 
to alternate mental and corporeal action, daily, for the re- 
ciprocal sanity and vigor, of both body and mind." 

Looking at these appalling facts, and a multitude of facts 
such as these, the same Report appropriately asks the ques- 
tion — "Why is the Manual Labor system so abandoned? 
The child alternates his period of morning and afternoon 
confinement, by various cheerful amusements, in the open 
air. But, when the animal frame is developed, and the re- 
dundancy of life and spirits is expended, how, let it be asked 
with solicitude, is the tendency to muscular action, which 
yet remains, satisfied, when the child-like exercises are put 
aside? In what manner is exhausted the health-preserving 
impulse to bodily activity? With what do students gener- 
ally alternate their periods of study? Some allow them- 
selves no relaxation, except what eating, and sleep, and reci- 
tation, and casual conversation, may afford. Too many al- 
ternate study with sensuality; while others, more methodi- 
cal, take set walks, make reluctant and fruitless resolutions 
to split and saw fuel-wood, and less willingly, when the 
novelty is over, to heat and move their muscles about a gym- 
nasium. These efforts at muscular exercise, too artificial to 
be lasting and suitable, declare, too plainly to be misunder- 
stood, that a defect exists in our present collegiate system." 

The important question then suggests itself — how can this 
defect be effectually remedied? By laying the axe at the 
root of the evil, most evidently. By instituting a system of 
vigorous exercise in all our seminaries of learning, and no 
longer unnaturally separating physical from mental educa- 
tion. What system of exercise should be adopted? Arc 
the exercises of the gymnasian schools most appropriate and 
natural ? We answer they are not the most natural, and 
41 



322 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

therefore not the most appropriate. Is it natural and appro- 
priate that young men should waste their muscular ener- 
gies, in the performance of that, which can he productive of 
no benefit, beyond the mere preservation of health? Is it 
not, rather, far more natural, appropriate, and beneficial, 
that they should expend those energies, in some employment, 
by which they should earn a livelihood, at the same time 
that they impart vigor and strength to their nervous and mus- 
cular system? Most certainly. This agrees with the dic- 
tates of common sense — and is founded, alike, upon the 
laws of nature and the laws of God. 

I cannot more vividly express my sentiments upon this 
subject, than by quoting a letter of Dr. Bell, which is con- 
tained in the First Annual Report of the Society for promo- 
ting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions, by Theodore 
D. Weld, Agent of the Society: 

"Hitherto, I have limited myself to speak of agricultural 
and mechanical labor, in connection with health; but, if 
their importance as a branch or part of education, were the 
question, the inquiry would take a wider, and, if possible, a 
still more satisfactory range. Omit practical agriculture, 
and mechanics, in a system of education, and every reflect- 
ing man must pronounce it incomplete, and defective, whe- 
ther as regards bodily health, or mental resources. Em- 
ployment, in the field or the workshop, alternating with the 
common scholastic exercises in school and college, would be 
a relaxation from the studies, purely intellectual, and not a 
labor. The mind would still be acquiring ideas, and those 
of the most enduring kind; since they are the effect of im- 
pressions made by the objects themselves, and not by writ- 
ten or verbal- descriptions. Habits of attention M^ould be 
formed, and a love of observation of the phenomena exhi- 
bited by external nature, and of the gradual and wonder- 
ful mutations accomplished by art, would be a strong and 
ruling passion. His body, accustomed to active and vigo- 
rous effort at the suggestion of the mind, a person feels more 
confidence in his own resources; is prompt and ready in mo- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 3"23 

ments of difficulty or danger; and, whether on sea or shore, 
in the crowded haunts of men, or in lonely travel, he has 
means of extricating himself from imminent peril, which 
others, differently educated, would never think of, or, if 
knowing, want the energy and presence of mind to turn 
them to account. The additibn of agriculture and mecha- 
nical employment to theoretical learning, cannot but enrich 
the mind with a large stock of ideas and energy, and enable 
it to indulge in new and varied combinations of known facts 
and opinions, and afford it much greater facilities for stri- 
king out fresh paths for investigation and discovery. 

"However much we may admit the original or innate dif- 
ferences among men, in regard to their aptitude for acqui- 
ring knowledge, and shining as inventive geniuses, (and few 
will carry the belief ilirtber than I do,) we must still, it 
seems to me, confess that unless materials be furnished from 
the external world for the mind to work on, its displays will 
be obscure, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable. The poet, the 
orator, and the more professed moral teacher, will be suc- 
cessful, not alone in proportion to the innate strength of 
their intellectual faculties, including imagination, but to the 
extent of their communings with men, and their long and va- 
ried observations of things. Witliout these, all the know- 
ledge obtained from books; all the research and deep study 
within college walls; all the recitations and exercises after 
the most approved rules of the most learned pedagogue — will 
not enable a man to teach and counsel his fellow-men with 
success; to enlist their sympathies for whatever is great, 
noble, and good, in real or fictitious life; to charm them with 
the magic creations of the pencil and chisel; or, in fine, to 
make them wiser, better, and happier. This assertion may 
seem at first view to be hazarded rather as expressing an infe- 
rence deduced from the tbeoretical premises already advan- 
ced, than the reaUty of the annals of literature, and the his- 
tory of genius. I am content to change the mode of argu- 
ment, and to rest our cause on tlie result of an appeal to 
these latter sources. If 1 mistake not, we shall find that a 
life of odvmtHri\ hardship.'^ encountered on sea and shore, 



324 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

long and fktiguing travel, mechanical and agricultural employ- 
ment^ and field sports and athletic exercises, and even the 
turmoil of a camp, however much most of them were seve- 
rally regarded at the time as vexatious interruptions to study 
and the cultivation of genius, they were in fact main con- 
tributing causes of the success and renown of many of the 
most distinguished names in arts, science, and letters. Fore- 
most in the list, among the worthies of our country, is Frank- 
lin, whose very necessities, and employment as a journeyman 
printer, by making him a slower reader of books, made him 
more thoroughly imbued with what he did read; and whose 
mode of life, and early associations, gave his mind a practi- 
cal as well as an inquiring turn, and compelled him to a 
slow and gradual development of his powers, and correspon- 
ding discoveries, which it is very doubtful would ever have 
been obtained in the continued sunshine of prosperity, and 
in the enjoyment of gentlemanly and scholastic leisure. He 
was eminently the working man and student, the printer and 
the philosopher. 

"The two.Stephenses, father and son, were both of them 
among the best and most laborious printers, and the most 
learned men of their age. 'The first, or Robert, author of 
the great Thesaurus of the Latin language, did more,' says 
De Thou, 'to immortalize the reign of Francis I., than all 
the monarch's own most famous exploits.' Henry Stephens, 
the son, was one of the most learned men that ever lived; and, 
although toiling in a laborious occupation, under the pressure 
of misfortune and penury, and often wandering about in 
quest of mere subsistence, he was so voluminous an author, 
that if he had spent his whole life in writing books, he would 
have left enough for us to admire in his industry and fertility 
of mind. His Thesaurus of the Greek language, the fruit 
of twelve years' laborious application, is well known to the 
learned. 

"Brindley, the celebrated engineer, Avas, till near the age 
of manhood, a carter and ploughman, afterward, a milhcright, 
in which employment his mind was trained for the grander 
exhibitions of inventive genius, in superintending the con- 



LECTURES ON EDrCATION. 325 

struction of the Bridgewater Canal, with its tunnels, aque- 
ducts, and locks. 

"Watt, as mathematical instrument-maker, and general 
engineer, was placed in the path of discovery the more easi- 
ly and successfully, by his combining with practical sci- 
ence the study of its theory. His steam engine, if not the 
unavoidable, was at least a natural result of his frame of 
mind, and mechanical pursuits, despite the obstructions in- 
terposed by delicate health and not unfrequent sickness. 

"Bewick, the celebrated engraver on wood, and author of 
the History of quadrupeds, delighted from his earliest years, 
in observing the habits of animals; and it was this fondness, 
which could only have been indulged in the freedom of a 
country life, that gave rise to his first attempts at drawing. 
He ever continued to be fond of all the manly and invigora- 
ting sports of the country. 

"Ferguson, while yet a shepherd and farm-servant, was a 
student of astronomy. His first attention to mechanics, when 
only seven or eight years of age, was frcm witnessing the 
employment of a beam resting on a prop, to raise part of 
the roof of his father's cottage, which had fallen in. 

"Not dissimilar to this, was the early life of our own Rit- 
tenhouse, who, when a young man, used to draw geometri- 
cal diagrams on his plough, and study them as he turned up 
the furrow. 

"The advantages of early difficulties, and obstacles to 
study, are, it seems to me, forcibly shown in the case of Sir 
Humphrey Davy. With his strong natural vanity, and dash 
of coxcombry, and love of show, it is not likely, had he been 
the son of a gentleman in affluent circumstances, in place of 
that of a poor wood carver, and an apprentice, to an apothe- 
cary in a small town, that he would have displayed that 
early love of science, and perseverance in experimenting, 
which made him eventually the most brilliant discoverer in 
chimical science of his day. 

"Many of the best historians were men who traveled 
much, or had been themselves busy actors in the scenes and 
events which they describe. The names of Herodotus, 



396 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Julius 
Csesar, Froissart, Philip de Comines, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
Frederick the Great, De Thou, Clarendon, occur to me at 
the moment, in support of this position. 

"In continued toil, and often imminent peril, while lead- 
ing the life of a seaman^ Columbus rendered himself the 
most accomplished geographer and astronomer of his age, 
and kept up that acquaintance which he had begun at 
school, with the different branches of elegant literature. 
It was at sea, too, that Cook acquired for himself those high 
scientific, and it may be added literary accomplishments, of 
which he showed himself to be possessed. Lord Colling- 
wood was only thirteen when he entered the navy, and du- 
ring the remainder of his life he was on shore but very short 
and few periods; and yet, as is evident from his correspon- 
dence published since his death, he writes, in an admirable 
style, and proves himself to have been a man of varied lite- 
rary attainments. 

"Of the successful union of mercantile business with litera- 
ture and philosophy, we have instances in the first Cosmo 
de Medici, Gugo, Ricardo, and others. 

"Poets, too often considered as mere dreamy enthusiasts, 
and unfitted for the common affairs of life, have been for the 
most part nice and accurate observers of men and things; 
have traveled much, and been subjected to vicissitudes of 
fortune. Homer, as far as we can glean from tradition, was 
a great pedestrian, and had carefully noted the customs of 
the various people, and appearance of the countries described 
in his two grand poems, but more especially in the Odyssey. 
TEschylus was a soldier as well as poet, and shared in those 
ever memorable battles of Marathon, Sal amis, and Plataea. 
Sophocles was of the same school as ^Eschylus, whom it was 
his fortune to excel in poetry as well as to surpass in military 
rank, since he commanded the Athenian armies, and in seve- 
ral battles shared the supreme command with Pericles. He 
also filled the office of chief magistrate, or archon, with cre- 
dit and honor. — Virgil was quickened to a display of his 
powers by misfortune, and for the success of his most finish- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 327 

ed poem, the Georgics, he was mainly indebted to a practical 
knowledge of rural ajfairs, and the changes and effects of the 
seasons, acquired bj his residence in the country, until he was 
forced to visit Rome with his father. Milton was accom- 
plished, not only in the learning of the schools, but in a 
knowledge of the world, by foreign travel, and mixing with 
men of all ranks. He was fond of, and displayed himself to 
much advantage, in the different manly exercises and sports. 
I was near omitting the contemporary and rival of Shak- 
speare, the celebrated Ben Johnson, who, at one period a 
soldier, and at another a mason with trowel in hand, still con- 
tinued to find time for the composition of some of the finest 
specimens of dramatic poetry in the English language. — 
Burns' sweetest poems were inspired by the scenery and as- 
sociations connected with the fields and streams of the coun- 
try over which he loved to roam, and in which he for years 
toiled as farmer. Scott, fond of rural sports and exercises, and 
of wandering amidst the wild and romantic scenes of his na- 
tive land, has given them and himself imperishable fame, by 
describing them in harmonious numbers, and by throwing 
a new charm over history, in his account of times gone by. 
His chief, at any rate, great charm, is fidelity of descrip- 
tion, whether of the features of a country, of the personages 
introduced, their costume, armour, and accoutrements. All 
these, to be well and truly portrayed, must have been seen 
and examined, or the fictitious drawn from the model of real 
life actually before him. 

No college student, with his cigars, late hours, moping 
and dyspepsy, his fear of the fresh air, and of rural and do- 
mestic occupations, can ever hope to attain to any of these 
excellencies. His complaints, and whinings, and metaphysi- 
cal jargon in rattling metre, or namby-pamby rhyme, are not 
poetry. He must go abroad in the full light of heaven, and 
roam over mountain and valley, converse with all degrees of 
men, know their ways and wants, and the application of sci- 
ence to every day''s business, before he can pretend to be a 
poet. Seldom, in the routine of scholastic or even common 
life, is the mind roused to a full display of its energies: vari- 



328 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ous, if not forceful, appeals arc required for it to do itself 
entire justice. 

"On occasions, indeed, it ^Yould seem as if the intellect 
necessarily must receive the quickening impulse of strong 
and impassioned feelings. The case of Byron, is an illus- 
tration of the lirst opinion. Another notahlc instance is 
met with in Alfieri, the chief of Italian dramatic poets. He 
traversed Europe over and over, with all the eagerness of, 
earnest pursuit, and yet unknowing what he wanted. At 
last the secret was revealed to him; his ardent temperament 
only preyed on itself, until the external world furnished him 
with materials, and study gave him the ability to fashion 
them into the animated forms of poetry. The forceful en- 
ergy imparted by active participation in civil strife, and the 
proscription following defeat, is sliownin the fate of Dante. 
It is his keen observation of character, his multiplicity of 
individual portraits, obtained in the struggle between Guelph 
and Ghibelline, in Florence, that imparts such strong, some- 
times involuntary interest, when we peruse his grand poem, 
or series of poems, it may rather be called, cosnposcd by 
him when exiled from his native land. Similar misfortunes, 
and a still more chequered life, were the lot of the famous 
George Buchanan. The interruptions to the acquiring of 
knowledge, by the bustle and agitation of a soldier's life, 
would seem, to most persons, so great as to forbid any addic- 
tion to study, certainly any advancement in science. Yet, 
it was in the period of his life in which he was a soldier in 
Holland, that the great Descartes laid the foundation of most 
ofthose mathematical discoveries which subsequently gave 
him so much celebrity. Of a different order of genius, but 
also commencing his life as a soldier, was the inimitable 
Cervantes. He was detained five years a captive in Al- 
giers; and, even after his return to his native country, was 
treated with such signal injustice, as to be thrown into pri- 
son. It was here that he wrote the first part of Don Quixote. 
Buchanan was a soldier for a time: he composed his cele- 
brated Latin version of the Psalms, in a Portuguese prison. 
Of Ben Johnson having been also a soldier, I have already 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 329 

spoken. The early life of penury and toil led by Gifford, 
has been well and forcibly described by himself. 

"The two celebrated orators of antiquity, may be adduced 
to show how much can be accomplished by persevering use 
of bodily exercise, added to habits of mental occupation. De- 
mosthenes strengthened a weak voice, and cured himself of 
indistinct articulation, by declaiming while ascending the 
brow of a hill, or walking amid the noise of the waves on 
the sea shore. Cicero, when he first appeared in the forum, 
was in such weak health, that his friends despaired of his 
life. One of our young promising lawyers, of the present 
day, would probably be content with enjoying the sympa- 
thy of his fellow-citizens, for his infirmities; and in order to 
keep up their interest in his state, he would speak longer 
and louder than allowed by the weakness of his chest, smoke 
an additional number of cigars, perhaps drink his brandy 
and water, and sit up late at night, to show his studious ha- 
bits, and his contempt for the rules which give the ignorant 
countryman healtli and cheerfulness. At last our youth 
of fair promise dies, a victim to his intense ardor for study 
and professional renown; and (but this is not told,) to his 
stilt/ obstinacy in continuing to smoke and drink, and to sit up 
late, and indulge in habits of bodily indolence. Not so acted 
Cicero: he abandoned, for a time, Rome and the forum, and 
traveled into Greece and Asia Minor, acquiring bodily vi- 
gor, and, at the same time, improving himself in the graces 
of oratoiy. 

"The sovereigns who have shone most conspicuously in the 
annals of the world, were those who, from fortunate early 
habits, or from their kingdoms being plunged in intestine or 
foreign wars, led a life of activity, often of hardship, and even 
personal exposure; such as the Emperor Julian, the English 
Alfred, Charlemagne, Henry IV. of France, Frederick the 
Great of Pi'ussia, Peter the Great of Russia, and in our own 
day. Napoleon Bonaparte. 

"The ancient philosophers were, for the most part, men 
o^ action. It was reserved for modern times, and an age 
boasting of its civilization and science, to admit the creed, 
42 



330 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

that philosophic contemplation is incompatible with a dis- 
charge of the active duties of life; and that, for the mind 
to develop all its energies, the body must be kept inactive. Not 
thus, reasoned and acted the great men of Greece. Socra- 
tes, himself, the son of a statuary, spent the first part of his 
life with chisel and mallet in hand. Nor, when encouraged 
to elevate himself to the study of philosophy, by Chilo, un- 
der Archelaus and Antixagoras, did he, like our modern 
book-worms, think himself free from the duly of defending 
his country in the field of battle. He fought, it is known, 
with rare valor, and was so fortunate as to save, by his cour- 
age, two of his friends and disciples, Xenophon and Alcibi- 
ades. His lectures and his teachings were oftener under 
the broad canopy of heaven, in the groves of the academy, or 
on the banks of the Ilyssus, than in the cramped space of 
man's architecture. Plato, though more favored by noble 
birth and the inheritance of wealth, than his master, Socra- 
tes, was not, on this account, inclined, like most of our j^oung 
men, in similar circumstances, to indolence and debasing 
pleasures. His body was strengthened by gymnastic exer- 
cises, and his mind cultivated with the study of poetry and 
geometry. After living twenty-eight years, a disciple of 
Socrates, he traveled over nearly all the then civilized por- 
tion of the earth, Greece, Sicily, Magna Grecia, and Egypt. 
Thus prepared, our wonder is less, that for forty years, the 
groves of the Academy should resound with the voice of the 
philosopher uttering the most sublime doctrines in ethics, 
politics, and human nature in general, in the language of 
the most seductive eloquence. 

"With the name of Xenophon, who does not associate ideas 
of a skillful general, an accomplished and eloquent histo- 
rian, and a profound and persuasive philosopher? But, why 
continue an enumeration which must be fresh in the mem- 
ory of every reader. The name of Pythagoras must not, 
however, be passed over in silence, connected, as it is, with 
so much that is practical in philosophy, pure in ethics, and 
amiable in common life. Skilled in all the learning of his 
age, Pythagoras was also celebrated in early life, for his 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 331 

strength and dexterity in gymnastic exercises; and he first 
made himself known in Greece, at the Olympic games, by 
obtaining, in his eighteenth year, the prize of wrestling. 
He was not content with the accomplishments and know- 
ledge, imposing as they may have seemed, which he gained 
in Greece. His powers of observation were strengthened, 
and his memory stored with a vast and varied collection of 
facts, connected with the condition, duties and capabilities 
of mankind, by foreign travel in Egypt and Chaldea. 

"The rules for early education, inculcated by Pythagoras, 
and so successfully carried into effect by an immense con- 
course of followers and disciples, are peculiarly worthy the 
notice of, and imitation by, the executive committee for 
promoting manual labor in literary institutions. Here, we 
discover, carried into full practice, upwards of two thou- 
sand years before their attempts, the plans of Pestalozzi and 
Fellenberg. How painful the reflection, that the most wa- 
tural and reasonable system of education, the most conforma- 
ble with sound theory, and that which has been again and 
again, in so many remarkable instances, and even in entire 
communities, proved to be both practicable and efficient, should 
have been so long, and still is so generally neglected, or misun- 
derstood and opposed,'''' 

Having, in our remarks thus far, shown the deletcrious- 
ness of disconnecting mental and physical education, and 
also exhibited, by our quotations, the obvious advantages 
resulting from their union, we would now say, in drawing to 
a conclusion, that the system has, with great success, been 
tested in various institutions in the United States, an account 
of which may be seen in the Report of Mr. Weld ; by which 
we learn, that the results of those experiments have been 
very felicitous, and such as must triumphantly refute all ob- 
jections, which can be urged against the introduction of 
Manual Labor into our seminaries of learning, and making 
it an essential branch of a thorough Academic course. 

For a plan, the operations of which are particularly adap- 
ted to our theory, wc would refer the reader to the third, 



332 LECTUKES ON EDUCATION. 

fourth, and fifth Lectures of this series; and, for a full consi- 
deration of the propriety and utility of making Manual La- 
bor a branch of education, and for a triumphant refutation of 
all the objections, which are, or can be brought against it, 
we would refer him to Mr. Weld's Lectures and publications 
upon the subject. 

We would now merely remark, in conclusion, that the dis- 
connection of study and labor in institutions of learning, is 
anti-republican in its tendency — that it creates and foments 
jealousies and animosities against professional men, in the 
minds of the laboring classes, since it introduces distinc- 
tions in society, and makes labor disreputable — and that, if 
it should continue, it would, gradually and imperceptibly, 
corrupt the plainness of our manners and fashions, and cre- 
ate the titles of monarchical governments. As republicans, 
therefore — as lovers of liberty, as philanthropists, we are cal- 
led upon, imperatively, by the pressing exigencies of the 
case, actively and efficiently to co-operate in laying the foun- 
dation of Manual Labor schools, and exert all our concen- 
trated influence and energy, to give universality to the 
system. 



LECTURE XI. 

SUBJECTS. INFLUENCE OF NOVEL-READING TENDENCY OF BOOK- 
AUCTIONS ART OF DECLAMATION PRESENT CONDITION OF 

THE PUBLIC PRESS. 

Our remarks, in preceding Lectures of this series, have 
been confined, mainly, to the present condition of schools, 
and to proposed improvements of that condition. As much 
has been said on those subjects, as the limits, which we had 
prescribed for ourselves, will admit, although much more 
might be said; for, scarcely a subject of human contempla- 
tion presents a wider range of thought. Since, therefore, we 
have advanced whatever we had designed to advance, upon 
those subjects, we propose, in the present Lecture, to re- 
mark upon several miscellaneous topics, which have an im- 
portant bearing upon the general interests of science. We 
design to demonstrate the truth of the propositions that — 
A'avcl-reading exerts a pernicious influence upon the mind of 
the student — and that the tendency of hook-auctions is injurious 
to the cause of science; — and, afterwards, we propose to make 
a few suggestions respecting the proper method of learning 
the art of declamation — and close with a remark or two upon 
the present condition of the public press. 

1. JYovel-reading, zohen too exclusive, exerts a pernicious influ- 
ence %ipon the mind of the student. Of its moral effect, which 
is, doubtless, bad, we shall say nothing, in this connection; 
but shall confine our remarks to its effect in an intellectual 
point of view, as exhibited in destroying the harmonious and 
equal action of the various passions, faculties, and feelings 
of the mind and the heart. The fact must be obvious to 
all, who have given the subject a few moments of their at- 
tention and investigation, that, when works of romance and 



334 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

fiction are read extensively^ they are, almost without excep- 
tion, read exclusively ; and tliat, just in proportion as they are 
read, a distaste is acquired for every liind of intellectual ali- 
ment which does not pamper the imagination, and gratify 
that unnatural appetite for mental stimulus, which, like the 
drunkard's, is never satisfied, until the mind is thrown into a 
state of delirious excitement. This is in accordance with 
certain rules of nature. By the exercise, for instance, of 
one particular limb more than the others, that limb is increa- 
sed, both in strength and size. The arm of the blacksmith 
or stone-cutter, by which the heavy hammer or sledge is 
daily wielded, will illustrate this position. Tiiat arm, you 
will perceive, grows, by this daily exercise, to double the 
ordinary dimensions, owing to the constant tension and labor 
of the nerves and muscles, every one of which is strung and 
rendered vigorous and powerful, so much so, that they can 
sustain enormous burdens — burdens so great as would in- 
stantly crush the nerves and muscles of an ordinary arm. 
In like manner, the eye may be so exercised, as to discern 
objects, distinctly, at a distance, which could be discerned 
but dimly, or not discerned at all, by one not thus exercised; 
as may be instanced by the eye of the sailor, which is daily 
practiced in looking over an interminable expanse of water, 
to discover sails or catch a glimpse of land. So it is with 
all the other limbs, and members, and senses. The opera- 
tions, indeed, of an invariable and definite rule or law, seem 
to be discernible in the fact, that just in proportion as one 
of those limbs, members, or senses, of the animal nature, is 
exercised, within certain boundaries, it is increased in 
strength and energy. 

Our comparison, I am aware, however, goes not to the full 
extent of a parallel case. But, it is a good parallel so far 
as it does extend. As a limb, or member, or sense of the 
body, is exercised, it is increased in strength and energy, as 
we have seen ; so does a faculty of the mind increase. Thus 
far, the parallel holds good. But, further, it extends not. 
While the limb, member, or sense, of the animal nature, 
acquires additional powers, by exercise, within the limits of 



liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 335 

a certain prudential boundary, the ordinary growth of those 
which are ?mexercised, is not thereby necessarily retarded, 
nor are their ordinary energies diminished. Not so with 
the mental faculties. If one be exercised intensely, and the 
others be \e{t inactive and dormant, that practiced faculty 
acquires amazing power, while the other faculties languish 
and become enfeebled. Thus, one faculty gains an undue 
ascendency over the rest, rules them with arbitrary sway, 
and destroys, thereby, the sanity and harmonious equili- 
brium of the mind. To whichever faculty this undue ascen- 
dency be given, by too exclusive exercise, the effect is per- 
nicious, but not in equalized proportions. The reasoning 
powers may be exercised too exclusively, and a vast predo- 
minancy be, thereby, given to them, over the other mental 
powers. In this instance, the effect is very pernicious, but 
not so pernicious as when the Imagination is exercised too 
exclusively. This position will be illustrated by examining 
the effects, in the two cases, and then drawing a parallel 
between them. A student, for instance, is biased by certain 
circumstances or predilections, strongly in favor of mathe- 
matics, and he studies them, therefore, almost to the entire 
exclusion of every other branch of science. By such a 
course, his reasoning powers are intensely exerted, while 
fancy remains perfectly inactive. The consequence is soon 
visible. He acquires a perfect distaste for every thing 
which savors of brilliant and poetic thought and imagery, 
and coldly, and sternly, rebukes away from his presence, all 
propositions, which cannot be perfectly demonstrated by 
pure mathematical deductions and inferences. He meas- 
ures every thing by rules, and squares, and angles, and tri- 
angles; and, if a proposition stand not the test of his princi- 
ples of admeasurement, he marks it down as a falsity. He 
will believe nothing but what is either visible or tangible, 
or what can be mathematically demonstrated. Out of his 
creed, therefore, if consistent throughout, he blots the doc- 
trine of miracles, and almost every other sublime truth of 
revelation, because they are, and must, necessarily, be be- 
lieved without demonstration, if believed at all. 



336 liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

Another student, for instance, is strongly inclined to novel- 
reading, and to literary pursuits, which strengthen that incli- 
nation. With the cold, plodding calculations and abstract 
reasonings of the mathematician, he is deeply disgusted, and 
wonders what pleasure a student can derive from the appli- 
cation of rules, and squares, and angles, and triangles, to 
given propositions, and from going eternally round the dull 
routine of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. 
Every kind of reading and of scientific investigation, which 
requires cool, deliberate, sober, and intense thinking, is, at 
length, disrelished, and becomes absolutely intolerable. From 
it, the student starts away, as he would from fetters and a 
dungeon. For, by it, his wild and wayward spirit would feel 
itself imprisoned. He must have that kind of stimulating 
aliment for the food of his intellect, which is supplied by the 
romantic and ever-varying incident and imagery of the pop- 
ular novel, in order, as he thinks, to live, and move, and 
breathe. Without it, he sinks into listlessness. With it, he 
soars into ideal regions, creates a new world of his own, for- 
ever wanders through mystic scenery of fairy land, and lives 
in the midst of objects and a population, which to him ap- 
pear real, but the pattern of which cannot be found among 
the sober realities and humdrum scenes of this mundane 
sphere. They are phantoms of an unearthly form, and an 
unearthly origin — the wild shapes, that dance before a de- 
lirious brain. The fact is, the student, who has imbibed 
this thirst for novel-reading, and kindred literary pursuits, 
becomes, in process of time, deranged — absolutely derangjed. 
He may not be mad, like the downright, raving maniac. 
Community may not be under the necessity of imprisoning 
him to pi'otect itself, or of putting upon him a strait-jacket. 
But, he is crazy^ nevertheless. What constitutes derange- 
ment? Is it not the destruction of the harmonious balance of 
the faculties, and the consequent production of mental an- 
archy? Is it not the predominancy of one faculty and one 
set of ideas, to the exclusion of every other train of thought, 
and to the total dormancy and apparent annihilation of ev- 
ery other faculty? Doubtless, it is. If I may be allowed 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 337 

the figure, for the illustration of my meaning, that faculty, 
which has thus gained such an undue ascendency, is like the 
Jiy-wheel of one of the steamers. When it is unshipped from 
the water-wheels, its revolutions are, it is true, very much 
accelerated, but they move not the boat. The machinery 
is unbalanced — it is deranged. So with the Imagination. 
It is i\\e Jly-wheel of the mind. If it be unshipped from Rea- 
son and Judgment, it revolves with far greater velocity. 
But, to no good purpose. Reason and Judgment, like the 
water wheels, in the comparison, move not with it. The 
powders of the mind are unhalanced. They are deranged. 
And the visionary often evinces it as truly, as did Don Quix- 
ote, in his extravagant adoration of his Dulcinea del Toboso, 
or in his celebrated battle with the wind-mills. The effect, 
which this derangement has upon the student's religious 
creed, is, to blot out the real Deity, as much as does that 
cool, calculating, incredulity, of the mathematician, which 
will believe no proposition or truth, which cannot be demon- 
strated by pure, logical deduction; although the visionary 
Mif/y have some God of his Imagination, to whom he bows 
in adoration, but as unlike the true God, as Jupiter is unlike 
Jehovah. By placing the influence of an exclusive cultiva- 
tion of Reason, and the influence of an exclusive cultivation 
of the Imagination, parallel Avith each other, as we proposed, 
we iind, therefore, that, although both ai'e bad enough, and 
fervently to be deprecated, the latter is far more pernicious 
than the former, inasmuch as it not only does, in fact, blot 
out the reed Deity from his creed, as docs the other, but makes 
him, unlike the other, an eccentric being, with scarcely a sin- 
gle rational, sober, common-sense idea, and unfits him, of 
course, for the society of common-sense people. 

Sufficient has been said, I doubt not, to demonstrate the 
position, that novel-reading, when too exclusive, exerts a perni- 
cious injlucnce upon the mind of the student. Especially does it 
exert this influence upon the mind of the young student, in- 
asmuch as his mind is ardent, his spirits elastic and buoyant, 
and he is much more apt to be delighted and enraptured by 
the vivid coloring, the copious variety, and deep passion of 
13 



338 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

ttie novel, than he would be, when the mind had become 
chastened by the cooler temperament of a more advanced 
age. For these reasons, and for reasons such as these, I have 
raised my voice against too exclusive novel-reading, or of 
novel-reading in any shape, if there be danger of its becoming 
too exclusive. , 

2. The injluence of book-auctions upon the general interests 
of science and literature is very deleterious. The proposition, I 
am aware, is a novel one, and it may not appear, at a first 
glance, how it can be satisfactorily demonstrated. Its de- 
monstration, however, we will attempt. We will, in the 
first place, explain what we mean by the term "book-auctions," 
and then show their peculiar bearings upon the cause of science 
and litcratiire. 

It has been the practice of certain book-sellers, in our 
large villages and cities, to send out agents to procure sub- 
scribers for some work, which they pi'oposed to publish, and, 
having procured a list large enough, at a price three or four 
times the cost of the work, they have proceeded to make an 
impression of twenty or thirty thousand copies of the edi- 
tion, when only five thousand were needed to supply sub- 
scribers. Having supplied those subscribers, the surplusage 
of fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five thousand copies, is thrown 
into the auction-rooms, and sold under the hammer, at one- 
quarter the price, perhaps, which subscribers were obliged to 
pay for patronizing the publication. Such iniquitous prac- 
tices have excited, and justly excited, the indignation of a 
defrauded community. But, these are not the most iniqui- 
tous practices. There is another class of l)ook-sellers, who 
conduct still more fraudulent. They buy a large amount of 
paper, upon credit, and then take some old, and very proba- 
bly, some worthless publications, for the cop}-right of which 
they are obliged to give nothing, and procure them printed 
and bound upon credit. This done, they sell them at auc- 
tion, for half what they really cost, and, indeed, sell them for 
just what they will fetch. Having disposed of tliem, in this 
manner, for cash, they put that cash, so gotten, into their 
pocket?, and then become — gentlemen bankrupts, by cheating 



LECTUnES ON EDUCATION. 339 

the paper-maker, the printer, and the book-binder, out of 
their just dues. Now, this is downright, villainous knavery 
— knavery, which is extensively practiced every year, but 
knavery which ought not to be tolerated by the laws and 
the executors of the laws — no, not for an hour. Not only 
have community been defrauded by such book-sellers, but 
every city, village, and town, throughout almost the whole 
length and breadth of these states, have been deluged with an 
overflowing flood of those volumes and works so published. 
The book-market is g-/uWed', and the public appetite is cloyed 
by over much reading, or rather by reading too many title- 
pages; for, I am sure, that, if there be time given to any other 
purpose or duty under the wliole heaven, nothing could be 
read but the mere title-pages of the ten thousand times ten 
thousand books and publications, with which the press is 
teeming, the vast majority of which are trash — mere worth- 
less intellectual garbage. 

It now remains forme to show the hearings which, book- 
auctions, anc| the consequent multiplicity and cheapness of 
books, have upon the interests of science and literature. 
These bearings are very multiform, and if I should examine 
them, in full and minute detail, I should fill a volume, instead 
of a page or tzoo. I shall, therefore, make but a few i-emarks, 
exhibiting those bearings in a general view. 

Every kind of commercial dealing, on the part of book- 
sellers, which has a tendency, by its fraudulency or other- 
wise, to prejudice community against the works and the ef- 
forts of learned men, injures the cause of science, because it 
detracts from public patronage, in a proportion exactly co- 
extensive with the prevalence and bitterness of that preju- 
dice. And how, I ask, emphatically — how can learned men 
live without patronage? Can they, while they are engaged,, 
night and day, in laborious studies, for the benefit of the 
public — can they, like the cameleon, live on air? Could Ful- 
ton have lived on air, while, in the solitude of his closet, he 
invented a machine, by which the powerful agent of steam 
could be applied to the purposes of navigation? Could 
Christopher Columbus have lived on air, while he w.a& plan- 



340 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

nine, investigating, and maturing his theory of a new world? 
Examine learned men. Handle them. You perceive they 
are not mere spirits. They have flesh and bones as well as 
other men. They need to eat, and drink, and sleep, and 
have comfortable apparel, and houses to shelter them, as 
much as other men. Away, then, with that doctrine, which 
prevails to some considerable extent, that learned men can 
support themselves, imthoid patronage, though they spend 
their whole time, and wear out their lives, in the service of 
the public. Away, I say, with such a doctrine. It is an 
abominable doctrine. It is cruel as the grave. It bears, on 
its hideous front, the remorseless and unpitying image of Al- 
gerine barbarity, and the man, who would adopt it into his 
creed, must be as hard-hearted as an Hyena. If the servi- 
ces of students are worth a7iy thing, they are worth the mo- 
ney — they are worth a livelihood. If a comrr.unity value 
education at all — unless they are willing that schools and 
colleges should crumble into dust — that books should be bur- 
ned up — that the light of science should go out in the ever- 
lasting darkness of ignorance and barbarism — they WILL 
patronize — LIBERALLY patronize learned men. A peo- 
ple, that will not do it, are near to heathenism. If any 
community on earth, can see a class of men among them, 
growing pale and emaciated, over the midnight lamp, and 
wearing themselves out in the public service; and if that 
community shall feel, that they are bound by 7io imperative 
obligations to patronize and support that class of men, the 
blackest ingratitude is stamped upon their character — ^^they 
are near to barbarism — I care not how enlightened thej 
may think themselves, they are near to barbarism and to — 
RUIN! But, I have digressed from my subject, and wilt 
return. Let it not be understood, from tliese remarks, that I 
would attach blame to communit}^, for being prejudiced 
against book-sellers and their agents, in many instances; 
for, they have been imposed upon, and the impostors ought 
to suffer for it. But, then, I would beg of the community to 
1)6 discriminating, and not visit, upon the heads of the inno- 
Qcnt, the just demerits of the guilty. I would beg of them. 



LECTURES ON EDTTCATION. 34l 

not to confound hook-sellers, with hook-makers, and then 
award to both, the some treatment. For, they are book- 
sellers, in most instances, who purchase of book-makers the 
copy-rights of their works, for a mere trifle, and then specu- 
late upon them, in the manner described, and cheat the pub- 
lic, and grow rich by their impostures, wliile the poor book- 
maker is almost pennyless. To remedy this evil, I would 
advise the author, if his productions are worth any thing, to 
take out letters patent, in his own name, to be tlic publisher 
of his own works, and then to bring them to market, as the 
artist does his articles of manufacture, and sell them at a 
profit, by which he can live and be remunerated. If he 
choose, he may allow the book-seller a certain per centage 
for selling, in the same manner, as the commission merchant 
is allowed a per centage, by the artist, for selling his arti- 
cles of merchandize. Never, if he be wise, will he sell the 
copy-right; for no man will feel the same interest in the repu- 
tation of the work, that he does, and no man will be held 
back, therefore, from impositions upon the public, by the 
same restraints and the same motives as himself. For, there 
are some book-sellers, who care not how much the' public 
are imposed upon, provided they can, by means of that im- 
position, make themselves affluent, nor how much the cause 
of science is injured forever thereafter, provided that their 
coffers have first been filled. 

With another remark upon this topic, I must close, al- 
though I am aware that I have not had time to give the sub- 
ject hardly a passing glance. Owing to the auction system, 
and to the vast multiplication of books, they are sold cheap 
— very cheap — perhaps, oftentimes bcloiv cost. In conse- 
quence of this cheapness, the community do not seem to dis- 
criminate between the actual worth of some standard work, 
upon some deep, difficult, and scientific subject, which must 
have cost the author a great deal of intense study and patient 
investigation, and a mere fancy piece or ephemeral produc- 
tion, whose existence is a blasting curse to community. 
They seein to estimate the worth of all publications at so 



342 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

much a page, without any discrimination, as they would es- 
timate the worth of one cord of wood, or one bushel of pota- 
toes, by the sale of another cord or bushel. But, I must leave 
this subject to the reflection of the reader, and proceed to 
explain — 

3. The proper method of learning the art of declamation. At 
the very outset of the student — at the very commencement 
of the acquisition of this sublime art — I would advise him to 
adopt it, as a fixed and an invariable rule, to "leave mad 
opinions," and throw behind his back, the stiff, scholastic 
formularies of the school-men and book-worms, and to fol- 
low the impulses of feeling, and copy nature — make her his 
teacher in the choice of every word, expression, look, and ges- 
ture. Unless he do this, he will, most assuredly, be shackled 
and trammeled. He will adopt, as the pattern of all his 
thoughts and movements, a nice, but froze?!, precision. 
When he plans his orations, and writes or premeditates 
them, every thing will be made precisely conformable to the 
square and the compass of Mr. Blair or Mr. Burke. No fig- 
ure — no expression — no emotion, will be admitted, unless it 
have the infallible sanction of their authority. And, when 
he stands up to speak, he will look like some school-boy, re- 
citing his lesson to his teacher, and will first put out his hand 
this way, or that, according to rule, bear the weight of his 
body, alternately, upon his right, and then upon his left foot; 
and, if he "start and stare" at all, he will exhibit tlie — 

"Start and stare scholastic, practiced at the glass." 

Now, all such methodical stiffness, such menial servitude to 
forms in writing and speaking, is the very death of all elo- 
quence. Never will the fire of Homer be infused into our 
compositions, or the almost trumpet-tongued thunders of De- 
mosthenes, be heard in the desk, at the bar, and in the sen- 
ate-house, until students shall, with noble independence, 
break away from the ligatures of all prescribed rules, which 
only cramp and fetter genius, and have tlie resolution to 
think and to act for themselves. 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 343 

In planning a composition, or in making preparation for a 
public occasion , it may be appropriately suggested in this 
connection — not for the purpose of prescribing a rule, but of 
throwing out a hint — that tlie mere tinsel splendor of lan- 
guage should be disregarded, and the main attention should 
be directed to the formation of a sound, natural, connected, 
and logical, argumentation, and to the acquisition of clear and 
forcible ideas, rather than beauty of expression, merely. For, 
thought is both the body and saul of eloquence, while phrase- 
ology is only its apparel. The more thin and flowing the 
drapery, therefore, and the more distinctly the bones and 
sinews, and muscular action of thought, can be seen through 
this drapery, the better. ^ An orator, who w^ould rouse, 
and convince, and persuade, an audience to action, or trans- 
port them with delight — who would agitate their feelings, 
like the ocean in a tempest, and make the tears flow at his 
bidding, or the eye flash fire, while he thunders on the deep- 
toned chords of passion — must studiously avoid every thing 
like an affectation of wordy pompousness. Such pompous- 
ness is sure to destroy all effect. For, the heart, at which 
the wordy storm is aimed, will be undisturbed, unagitated, 
and will look, with calm composure, upon the Avildest burst 
of merely affected feeling. Yes, it will regard, with cold 
indifference, the effort to captivate it by such instrumentali- 
ties. It can detect, at a glance, and intuitively, every thing 
like counterfeit pathos and a counterfeit eloquence, how 
glaring soever an appearance there may be of emotion. You 
cannot cheat the heart, in this respect. It is impossible. 
There is a certain mysterious, invisible communication, be- 
tween the spirit of the speaker, and that of his hearer, through 
which medium, like sparks of electricity, along a wire, his 
thoughts and feelings circulate, and arc conveyed to the 
mind and heart of the latter, with exactly that distinctness 
and vividness, with which they emanated from his own mind 
and heart. The hearer invariably, though silently, and, 
perhaps, almost imperceptibly to his own consciousness, at 
the time-being, determines, in the balancesof judgment, the 



344 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

precise weight, and strength, and density, of that thought, 
and the depth, the honesty, and intensity, of that feehng, 
and back again, to the speaker, his estimate is conveyed, 
along that invisible electric chord of intercommunication, or 
else by the countenance, that faithful and unerring index to 
the different phases of passion. 

If, then, there be magnificence and majesty of expression, 
it should be the result, not of a bombastic verbosity, but of 
pure, simple thought, which can never be successfully coun-" 
terfeited, by a mere affectation of forcible and rlietorical 
declamation. 

To produce a powerful and abiding effect upon an audi- 
ence, an orator must have the area of his mind completely 
filled with the subject of its contemplation. It must glow 
with something of the intensity of a heated furnace. Every 
sentence, word, syllable, look, and gesture, must live and 
breathe. The perceptions of the Understanding must be as 
vivid, as flashesof lightning, and the ideas should roll through 
the channels of thouglit, to the door of utterance, like the 
regular and resistless swell of the ocean-wave. Indeed, so 
absorbed must the whole soul be with the subject, that the 
speaker shall lose sight of the mere drapery of language — 
4^ lose sight of himself — lose sight of every other subject, but 
that of his immediate contemplation, and waste scarce a 
thought about the choice and proper collocation of words. 
This, and this onli/, constitutes the life and soul of eloquence; 
and, were effect aimed at, more than mere beauty, and sim- 
ple thought studied, more than word and expression, the ef- 
forts of our speakers, in the pulpit, at the bar, and in the 
senate-house, would exhibit more of the Herculean nerve of 
a Demosthenes — more of the electric fire of a Wliitfield — 
more of the fervid earnestness and potent persuasion of a 
Pitt, Earl of Chatham — more of the simple and natural, but 
overwhelming and gigantic energy, of a Patrick Henry — 
more of the mighty throbbings and pulsations of a CJialmer's 
mind — more of the laconic terseness, the dauntless indepen- 
dence, and thundfu-bcaring force of a Webster, of our own 



liECTUKES ON EDUCATION. 345 

happy land, Ihrougli the thin drapery of whose words may 
be seen, as one expresses it, "the bones of iron, and the 
sinews of brass." 

4. We will, now, for a few moments, contemplate the pre- 
sent condition of the public Press. By a figure of rhetoric, I 
here put press, for the publications which are issued from it, 
and, by the term — ^^pub lie pi-ess''"' — I mean those publications 
which are issued from it, periodicallj'', either daily, weekly, 
or monthly, in the form of Journals, Newspapers, and Re- 
views. What, then, is the present condition of that press, or 
of those publications? This is an inquiry of the utmost impor- 
tance to us, as a republic, and, in attempting to answer which, 
I fear that I shall not be enabled to do adequate justice to 
the subject. But, I will, nevertheless, attempt. 

Our Reviews, may first claim our attention. Of these, 
there are a considerable number, but not too many. For 
the most part, they are edited with dignity, ability, and clas- 
sic taste. They compete, in successful rivalry, with foreigii 
Reviews, even with the famous Edinburgh, and they de- 
serve to take the highest rank, in the annals of American 
literature. But, yet, in my humble opinion, there is, some- 
times, discoverable, both in American, English, and Scotch 
Reviewers, a little spice of prejudice and partiality. They * 
treat not, with like lenity, all works of like merit. They are 
fallible, and are, therefore, like all others, biased, more or 
less, by a name, which is a mere phantom. If the author be 
unknown — if he have, as yet, acquired no fame by his works, 
among the literati — he is likely to receive but a cold recep- 
tion, and his productions to be handled roughly. To a cer- 
tain extent, this is true, and is an inseparable concomitant 
of human frailty. 

To this spice of prejudice and partiality, may be superad- 
ded, a little spice of vanity, withal. This appears, in the 
first place, by their becoming self-constituted monitors, in the 
republic of letters, and conservators of classic taste. By 
thus setting themselves apart to the oflice of scientific judges, 
and tribunals, to determine merit or demerit, and award praise 
or blame, they virtually say, "other men's opinions, and sen- 
44 



346 LECTURES ON EBUCATION. 

timents, and forms of expression, should be tested by the 
standard of ours^ and be commended or ftocommended, ac- 
cordingly." Now, if this have not a spice of vanity in it, I 
must confess that I know not what has; and, it is acted out, 
oftentimes, conspicuously, after they have seated themselves 
in the critic's chair, in passing severe judgments upon works, 
which are better written, by far, than they could have writ- 
ten themselves. But, having premised these remarks, I am 
inclined, on the whole, to consider them valuable, and, that 
they answer a very useful end, in exposing to public con- 
tempt and ridicule, quackery in authorship, and in malcing 
genius more cautious and correct. 

In the next class, I would rank all those journals which 
dare, nobly, to tell the frw^A, just as it Z5, with reference to 
political facts, and affairs, and men, without being deterred 
by fear, frowns, or favoritism. The number of this class is 
exceedingly small, each one of the conductors of which, in 
this age of political corruption, deserves a monument; for, it 
requires more independence, integrity, inflexible principle, 
and uncompromising decision of character, than ordinary 
men possess, to tell, fearlessly^ at all times, and under all 
circumstances, "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing fewf 
the truth ;" — and, I say, therefore, that the conductor of a 
public journal, who does, in this age of partyism, favoritism, 
political rewards, and general political corruption, state 
facts correctly, and lie not, nor exaggerate, to subserve the 
interests of some particular junto, deserves a monument, if 
ever a human being deserved one ; for, as Pope says — 

"An honest man 's the noblest work of God." 

The journalists, who conduct these periodicals, which are 
sparsely scattered over the length and breadth of the coun- 
try, like so many friendly beacon-lights, erected along so 
many hundred miles of sea-coast, to scatter the deep politi- 
cal darkness, which would otherwise shroud the land, with 
the pall of an Egyptian night — the journalists, I say, who 
conduct these periodicals, do not, blindly, and with mad 
adoration, advocate a man, or a party, as infallible; but ad- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 247 

vocate certain fixed and immutable principles of right,, and 
thunder their denunciations against certain fixed and immu- 
table principles of zvrong, let the scathing anathema light 
where it may. To these immutable tests, they bring every 
man's character and every man's work, and there determine, 
of what sort, or species, or genera, it is. Such journalists 
cannot be briBed into subserviency to the aspiring purposes 
of demagogues and office-seekers. They scorn to become 
the dupes or tools of a party, or the organs or oracles of a 
junto. They make not all men, either angels of spotless pu- 
rity, or else t/eriYs incarnate, destitute of a single good qual- 
ity, according as they happen to coincide with their views, 
and opinions, and preferences, or to differ from them. No: — 
But they estimate character according to its real, sterling 
worth, and not according to the standard of party partiali- 
ties. Such men deserve patronage. It would be for the 
well-being of the republic, if they were patronized very ex- 
tensively. I could wish that their journals were in every 
mansion, hamlet, and hovel, throughout the Union. Yea, 
I could wish, that their subscription lists would reach, on 
one spacious sheet, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that 
they had the cash, for each subscriber, yearly, in advance. 

But, I turn away from the contemplation of this lovely pic- 
ture of independence, integrity, honesty, uprightness, and 
decision of character, to the contemplation of one, dark — 
DARK — DARK — ALL dark — black as Erebus, and eternal 
night! Having embraced, in the two first classes of peri- 
odicals, the Reviews, and the very few journals, which are 
vehicles of truth, [immortalized be their memory,] — I include 
in a third, and last class, all that vast majority of periodicals 
— all those ten thousand vehicles of slander, calumniation, 
detraction, abuse, scurrility, blackguardism, ribaldry, and 
most besotted ignorance, united with most disgusting ego- 
tism, from the hireling presses, at the capital, dow7i — down 
— DOWN, to the most paltry seven by nine sheet, that is 
sent forth, from the most obscure village in the Union, to 
poison and pollute the public morals, and emit a pestilen- 
tial effluvia, more pernioious, than that of the Bohon Upas, 



348 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

of Java: — Yes, I include, "Tray, Blanchard, Sweetheart," 
Tiger, and every other snapping, snarHng cur, that barks at 
the heels of greatness, which he can never imitate. 

When I take up one of those periodicals, and peruse it, I 
cannot but quickly come to the conclusion, that ^^lying has 
become so in use, that truth is out of fashion — quite thrown 
aside, like the uncouth garment of a Gothic age." They 
are pledged to advocate a man,) to support a party,) at all 
hazards; to vindicate certain actions,^ be they right or wrong. 
And to advocate that man, to support that party, and to vin- 
dicate those actions, they hesitate not to fabricate and re- 
tail the most bare-faced, absurd, and palpable falsehoods, 
if those falsehoods shall appear likely to subserve their in- 
terests in any shape or way. Indeed, I \x\o^ of a multi- 
tude, who have become so habituated to exaggeration, mis- 
representation, and deception, that they had actually rather 
tell a falsehood, than the truth, if the truth would, at the 
same time, subserve their purposes equally as well. Lying 
has become their element, and they could not, seemingly, 
live or breathe without it. And, for what do they all this? — 
For what do they thus prostitute themselves, and make ship- 
wreck of character, and vilely sell themselves to cater for 
demagogues? Why, for the paltry consideration of a little 
government pottage — a little treasury pap. 

But, further still. They stop not here. Some character 
of great worth and ability, an ornament to his country, hap- 
pens to stand in the way, as a barrier to the ambitious de- 
signs, and the tyrannical will of their master. Circumstan- 
ces create an imperative necessity, that he should be remo- 
ved out of the way, lest he might resist the lordly strides 
of a dictator. The watch-word is, therefore, given. The 
big dog, at Washington, begins, most furiously, to bay at 
him. Immediately, certain smaller curs, at New York, 
Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Cincinnati, and other pla- 
ces, begin to bristle up their manes, look as lion-like as pos- 
sible, and echo back his yelpings, to keep the big dog in 
countenance. Then — tlien comes the chorus, in real ca- 
nine style. From Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlan- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 349 

tic to the Rocky Mountains, every cur, and pointer, and 
hound, and whiffet, opens his mouth, and one deafening 
jargon of snaps, and snarls, and growHngs, and barkings, 
are commingled, and rise up to the high vault of heaven. 
Or, to speak without a figure, the organs of public abuse 
and detraction speak out at the Capitol, and their sentiments, 
be they right or wrong, true or false, are echoed, and re- 
echoed throughout the Union. "Whatsoever is lovely, and 
of good report," in character, is most mercilessly and mali- 
ciously immolated upon the altar of a party, and at the 
shrine of a human demi-god. This is the present condition 
^^of a shameless and polluted press''"' — and such publications, 
as are mere vehicles of slander and falsehood, are "/Ac cast- 
off slough'"' of that press. 

Now, what can be done to reform that press, is a momen- 
tous question? I know of no other possible way, than to 
turn that whole herd of ignoramus apprentices and printers' 
boys, out of the editorial chair, into which, they have had 
the singular audacity and effrontery to hoist themselves, and 
to elevate to that responsible station, men, who possess some 
talent, integrity, and "pride of personal character," and who 
cannot be made the mere sycophantic subservients of mad 
ambition. But, hozo shall this be effected? ^^Hic labor rsL" 
"Hei-e is the mighty difficulty." And, I can conceive of no 
possible way, in which it can be effected, except public 
opinion be enlightened upon the subject, and community 
resolve, with one consent, to starve such editors out of their 
office, by refusing any longer to receive and pay for the pes- 
tiferous progeny of their brains ; for they are mere hirelings, 
and bark as they are bidden. 'That such may be the case, I 
would pray with my latest breath, so that posterity may en- 
joy those same free institutions, with which we, as a nation, 
are blessed. 



LECTURE XII. 

SUBJECTS. CAUSES WHICH HAVE OPERATED IN PAST AGES 
AGAINST IMPROVEMENTS, AND THE METHOD OF THEIR OPERA- 
TION THE CAUSES WHICH WIUL, PROBABLY OPERATE AGAINST 

IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATION THE MEANS BY WHICH THOSE 

CAUSES MAY BE RENDERED POWERLESS. 

"Custom," says the proverb with propriety, ''is a second 
nature." Despotic and absolute have been its influences 
over the opinions of man. Probably greater has been the 
power of those influences, over the sentiments of the great 
mass of the world's population, than the united power of 
Reason, Judgment and Understanding. As it has been next 
to an impossibility to induce a drunkard to renounce his 
cups, the epicurean to be satisfied without his dainties, or the 
sensualist to forego his pleasures, how blighting soever to 
reputation, and how destructive soever to health and life — 
so has it been equally, and, perhaps, more impossible, to 
persuade the Mahometan to abjure the faith of the Alcoran, 
the Bramin to acknowledge the impositions of the Shaster, 
the Roman Catholic to confess, that some other church 
might be the "pillar and ground of the truth," as well as 
his own, or any class of men, either in barbarous or civilized 
society, to renounce their opinions and prejudices, how con- 
trary soever to truth or right reason, and how incapable 
soever of standing the test of argument and investigation. 
The ideas which they acquire, and the sentiments which 
they imbibe, and the feelings which they cherish in child- 
hood, concerning men and things, concerning theories and 
institutions, generally strengthen with their strength and 
increase in influence over their judgments, decisions and 
actions, as their years increase, until, at length, they obtain 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 351 

the entire predominancy, become, as it were, incorporated 
witli the mind and the heart, and are interwoven with their 
every fibre. — And that power of argument, illustration and 
appeal, which shall be able to erase from the memory the 
deep impressions of those ideas, and to wrench away from 
the heart, as it were, those sentiments and feelings, entwined 
as they are with its very texture, must be very nearly allied, 
in its energies, to omnipotent power — must be almost as 
efficient, as creating power. For, in their eradication, and 
in the implantation of other and proper ideas and sentiments 
and feelings in their stead, it is necessary, if I may be 
allowed the expression, to unmake the man, and to make 
him over again. Custom, then, has opposed an almost 
insuperable barrier to improvements and innovations upon 
established usages, and has guarded the strongholds of error 
vvdth a giant's mightiness. 

Besides the powerful control which custom has exerted 
over the habitudes of thinking, feeling and acting, in giving 
them perpetuity, self-estimation, or a partiality for the opinions 
of one^s oivn brain, and the practices of one's own self has 
contributed very largely to the perpetuity of those habitudes. 
Not unfrequently has it barred every inlet to the mind, and 
every avenue to the heart, against the approach of investiga- 
tion, argument and appeal, witli bolts of adamant, and gates 
impenetrable as brass. Whenever, in all the different 
periods of the world's history, attempts have been made 
to disprove the correctness of opinions, which men have 
cherished, from the days of the nursery, until the maturity 
of manhood, or the decline of age — whenever the validity 
of positions or premises, which liave been assumed, and 
deductions, which have been made from tliosc premises and 
inferences, which have been the result of those deductions, 
have been questioned as illogical — or whenever the per- 
fection of institutions or of characters, which have been 
venerated as immaculate, is doubted — not only has the power 
of habit risen instinctiveh'', and taken a posture of defiance 
and battle, but every principle of sdf-tompluciiicy has taken 
the alarm, and crie4 "to arms, to arrif^^ — an<l both passion 



352 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

and prejudice have been arrayed in a bilter crusade against 
such assaults upon human perfectibility. 

Especially have they thus risen up in defence of cherished 
opinions and institutions and characters, if to self-estimation 
there have been added pride of ancestry and veneration for 
it — especially if a long line of progenitors reaching back to 
time immemorial, had thought as they thought, had felt as 
they felt, had acted as they acted, and had trodden in the 
same beaten pathway in which they were treading. From 
such premises as these they reasoned, and such conclusions 
as these, for instance, they drew. "In coincidence with 
us," said they, "our illustrious forefathers thought, and felt, 
and conducted so and so, and held the doctrine that such 
and such sentiments were infallible; and can it be possible 
that they could have been wrong, venerable as they were 
for their gravity, experience, wisdom, and silver locks. Must 
the clearness and penetration of our views," said they, "the 
validity of our positions, the soundness of our judgment and 
logic, the sanity of our reasoning powers, and the correctness 
of our information, be called in question, supported and 
confirmed as they have been by the views and positions, 
the judgment and logic, the learning and reason, of a long 
catalogue of gray-headed ancestry, over whose tomb-stones, 
fame and science have thrown a brilliant halo of glory, 
and whose memories have been embalmed for immortality 
in story, and in song, and in the fond recollection of an 
admiring posterity? Must these, w^e repeat, must these be 

called in question, and their infallibility be doubted 

and called in question and doubted too, by some visionary 
upstarts, who think themselves wiser than their fathers, but 
over whose heads only a few suns have rolled, and who, in 
comparison with those men of silver locks, can be but 
chitdren in experience, knowledge and understanding?" 

Pride of ancestry and veneration for it, superadded to 
self-estimation, put these interrogatories to the innovator, 
and so put them, as though they could not be satisfactorily 
answered — so put them, in the confident form of a challenge, 
as though their negative were a self-evident proposition, that 



UECTUKES ON EUUCATION. 353 

needed no efTort at logical deduction to make its truth the 
plainer. Now all this is, indeed, very plausible, and may 
sound very well in declamation. But who, if his mental 
vision be not blinded by prejudice, does not, at a glance, 
see through the sophistry of such reasoning? Who does 
not see, that the premises assumed are false, though the 
inferences drawn from those premises may be logical. The 
premises assumed are, that age must have rendered the 
experienced and talented of other days infallible; and the 
conclusions drawn are, that their opinions and practices must 
have, also, been infallible. The logicians, indeed, who 
reasoned thus, deserved a compliment for their sagacity. 
They showed that they were acquainted with the human 
heart — that they understood the true secret springs of human 
feeling and of human action, and that they understood how 
to touch those springs etfectually. To paralyze the efforts 
of investigation, when exerted to undermine some favorite 
system, to muzzle the mouth of inquiry, and to make the 
sophistries and plausibilities of error pass current for sterling 
truth, an appeal is made in their behalf to some of the 
strongest, and, indeed, to some of the noblest sympathies 
of our nature — to our admiration of what is ancient and 
honorable — to our gratitude for the services of the illustrious 
dead — and to our veneration for their memories, and for the 
hallowed chamber where they are sleeping. The silence 
of the tomb is broken, and in strains of moving eloquence 
the dust of death is made to speak. In language like this, 
an appeal is made to the innovator. *'Will you sacrile- 
giously disturb the consecrated repose of the illustrious, and 
venerable, and talented, of other days? Will you, with ruthless 
hand, force the portals of the tomb, and rake open the 
ashes of the dead, and obscure their fame, and blight their 
memories, by asserting that they might, peradventure. have 
felt^ and thought, and acted wrong?" To support the pre- 
tensions of self-estimation to freedom from er^or, so have 
pride of ancestry, and veneration for it, reasoned, and so 
have they appealed to our gratitude for the services, and our 
veneration for the memories of the departed. Often have 
45 



354 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

thev too powerfully and too saccessfully reasoned and 
appealed. Often have we been made their converts; and 
thus, by the sophistries of an unsound logic, and by the ex- 
citement of noble, yet misdirected sympathies, we have been 
induced to give perpetuity to falsehood and delusion. 

In this manner Popery now reasons, and appeals, and 
points us to her calendar of saints, and to the abstemious- 
ness and sanctity of her monasteries, and her convents, 
though she be at the same time, gray-headed in iniquity — 
though her garments are stained and her hands are dripping 
with the life-blood of martyrs; while up from the deep dun- 
geons of her Inquisition, there come, by day and by night, 
shrieks and groans of mortal agony, which would almost melt 
a heart of stone to mercy! 

Besides the deleterious influences of the several causes we 
have considered, self-interest or avarice has uniformly chilled 
the spirit of enterprise, clipped the pinions of genius, and 
obstructed the march of improvement. Very powerful in 
the production of evil, as well as in the prevention of good, 
have been its instrumentalities. With views confined to the 
circumscribed sphere of private, personal ends and individual 
gains, the miser has never looked abroad beyond that circum- 
scribed sphere. He has felt no sympathy for any object be- 
yond it, nor held communion with that object, how meritori- 
ous soever it might have been. Yea, he has cared for noth- 
ing over the wide globe, but the accumulation of wealth ; and 
such has been the strength and predominancy of this master 
passion of the soul, that the highest public good, and every 
feeling of humanity, have been remorselessly sacrificed upon 
the altar of avarice. 

The truth and appositeness of foregoing remarks, may be 
forcibly illustrated, by a reference to the history of facts. 
Columbus, that man of immortal memory, concluded, for in- 
stance, that there must be, upon the principles of a just equi- 
librium, a continent far to the West, to counterbalance Eu- 
rope, Asia and Africa. 

It is needless, here, to explain the method of deduction, by 
which he drew such an inference: Suffice it, merely to say, 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 355 

that it accorded with sound logic, and was, to his own under- 
standing, at least, satisfactory and convincing. Fully per- 
suaded himself of the correctness of his new geographical sys- 
tem, he divulged it, first to his friends, and afterwards, to 
one of the European Courts. He defined the hypothesis upon 
which his theory was built — demonstrated the correctness of 
his mathematical calculations — showed the consistency of his 
logic with the principles of common sense — and, exhibited in 
colors, glowing with fervid eloquence, the advantages to be 
derived by that prinoe or enterprising adventurer, who should 
explore and take possession. But how was his theory regar- 
ded — supported, as it was, by the undeniable deductions of 
consistent and logical reasoeing? Wh}-, contrary to his ex- 
pectations, and as plausible theories too often are, it was 
looked upon, both by friends and enemies, as a chimera — 
himself pronounced either a madman or a fool — and, he was, 
for years, an object of pity with some, contempt with others, 
and the laughingstock of the rabble? He persisted, however, 
in the belief, that his conclusions were tindeniablcj all discour- 
agement notwithstanding; and at length, accomplished his 
object. Aided in his undertaking by efficient and royal pat- 
ronage, he crossed, for the first time, the trackless Atlantic — 
visited the territories he had long seen in vision, and return- 
ed triumphant, crowned with well earned laurels, and laden 
with confusion for his enemies. 

Fulton's first suggestion respecting the practicability of 
Steam navigation, was, in like manner, pronounced, by the 
ill-boding oracles of criticism, chimerical to the very last ex- 
tremity. But that man, who possessed independence enough, 
and confidence enough in his own resources, to depart from 
the beaten traclt of generations, possessed also decision enough, 
unbendingly to form, and unhesitatingly to put in execution, 
plans necessary to insure triumph, and demonstrate, both to 
the favorable and the unfiivorable, the sanity of his mind, as 
well as his theory. In spite of scowling envy, and ill-omen- 
ed prophecy, he constructed a vessel, after the model he had 
designed; and, having completed it, in the presence of thou- 
sands, both favorable and adverse, and while expectation 



356 LBCTURBS ON EDUCATION. 

stood upon tiptoe, he fearlessly brought the result of his in- 
vention to the trial. To the exultation of friends^ the confu- 
sion of ybes, the astonishment of admiring millions^ and the ben- 
efit of his cown/n/, his experiment was completely successful: — 
And thanks, and even something a little more solid than thanks, 
are, no doubt, due from the nation to the inflexibility of Ful- 
ton, that our facilities for traveling are so vastly increased; 
that the Hudson, the Connecticut, the Ohio, the Mississippi, 
and other rivers, can now be ploughed, with such rapidity, 
against both wind and tide; and, thattiie distant extremities of 
our immense republic are, thereby, brought, as it were, hun- 
dreds of miles nearer together, and teiifold strength thereby added 
to the bonds of our federal Union. 

The first suggestion, likewise, that Lake Eric might be 
connected with the Hudson, though acknowledged to be 
sublime and imposing, in vision, was, yet, regarded, when the 
practicability of its accoiyiplishmcnt was urged, in the same 

light, as were the theories of Columbus and Fulton; and 

until the great undertaking was almost completed, what was 
afterwards called, by way of eminence, the "Grand Wes- 
tern Canal," was ridiculed as "Clinton's big ditch." But 
happy for New York, and for the Union, that the noble 
projector had magnanimity enough, to disregard smutty sar- 
casm—decision of character, to overcome obstacles— and 
penetration, to look beyond the mists of ignorance, to a suc- 
cessful result. 

Besides these facts, there are a multitude of others, equally 
appropriate. The art of printing, was, for a while, consi- 
sided, necromancy— <i correct arterial anatomy, and the true 
circulation of the blood, a romance — the rotundity and revo- 
lution of the earth, instead of an extended and motionless 
plain, a cA?mera— Newton's system of astronomy, the insult 
of an upstart theorist, to the good-sense and profound research 
of ancient philosophers— Locke's Treatise upon the Human 
Understanding, the lucubrations of some dieamer— the pa- 
triotism of Leonidas, Kosciusko, Tell, and Washington, the 
zeal of demagogues— pure Christianity, fanaticism— the self- 
denial of prophets, apostles, and martyrs, religious ostenta- 



LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 357 

tion — their efforts to benefit the human race, ofiicious inter- 
meddling — and even the benevolent mission of our Redeem- 
er, an artful plan of the arch-apostate, to entrap and ruin 
souls, to "turn the world upside down," and to embroil it 
with the turmoil and jargon of the pit. 

Having thus just glanced at the prominent causes, which 
have, in ages past, operated to prevent improvements in art 
and science, we shall proceed to suggest — 

2. The causes, which zo ill probably opera te, in the prevention 
of improvements in education. In this age of illumination, 
enterprise, and action, the influences o^ custom, self-estimation, 
pride of ancestry, veneration for it, and avarice, will not be so 
despotic as formerly. Men are every where breaking through 
the shackles of habit. They adhere not, so tenaciously as 
formerly, to preconceived opinions. Although they are 
proud of their ancestors, and have a veneration for them, 
they do not, by any means, consider, that their characters 
or sentiments were infallible. And, Avarice now begins to 
relax that iron-grasp, with which it has, for ages, held its 
purse-strings. Other causes will, now, operate against im- 
provements — and especially against improvements in educa- 
tion, and must, therefore, be met and opposed in a different 
way. Opinion will militate against opinion. Theory will 
clash with theory. Prejudice will be at swords points with 
prejudice. Political aspirants will make improvements their 
hobby-horse to ride into power. Party will strive with party 
for predominancy, and sect with sect. Public sentiment will 
be convulsed, by the commotion of these various elements, 
warring to gain the mastery, the one over the other. Vari- 
ous, no doubt, will be the opinions advanced, and the the- 
ories broached by men, who delight to take the lead of 
popular feeling and sentiment; and who will,^ therefore, 
strive to take the lead in improvements in education, al- 
though they may never have been practical instructors of 
youth, and know not, therefore, experimcntaVy, thc_deficien- 
cies, which exist in the present modus operandi of educa- 
tion, nor the proper corrections for those deficiencies. They 
will speculate and broach theories upon the subject. But 



358 LECTURES ON EDUCATION. 

those theories will he as wide from propriety, as the East 
is from the West. They will in no wise, meet the exigen- 
cies of the case. 

To effect the grand objects of his ambition, the politician 
will — if the subject is likely to be a popular one — if by ad- 
vocating it, he see a prospect of acquiring votes — become at 
once, amazingly eloquent in demonstrating the innumerable 
and invaluable blessings of universal education; and in 
urging upon public attention, its immense importance. 
And, at the same time, they will tell you, that they are ex- 
tremely disinterested in so doing, and have, at heart, solely 
the good of the "fZear people.''' All this you will believe, 
if their assertions, at every corner of the streets, shall have 
the power to subdue your incredulity, and make you be- 
lieve it. 

Sectarianism will be remarkably zealous, and profess, in all 
its efforts, to disseminate education, and in all its actions, to 
have, at heart, the highest good of the human race. Butjust 
propose, that all sects and denominations shall be equally rep- 
resented, in all conventions and assemblies, which shall con- 
vene to promote this object, and you will then have a touch- 
stone of singular virtue, which will, at once demonstrate the 
sincerity of its professed disinterestedness. Yes, you will, 
then, have a touch-stone, which will demonstrate, that the 
zealous efforts of sectarianism are put forth mainly for the 
rea/ purpose of advancing the interests of an indhidual and 
particular denomination. But it is time to show — 

3. The means by which those causes, which will probably ope- 
rate against improvements in education, may be rendered vowek- 
LESs. These exist in the resources, which the public have 
in their possession, and in those only. The great mass of the 
community should undertake this immense work themselves, {or 
to them it properly belongs. And if they should undertake 
it, as it is hoped they may, it will be done and done effectu- 
ally. They should examine and intensely scrutinize the 
motives and pretensions of all, who would offer themselves, 
as leaders of public sentiment and feeling. And every 
thing, like the narrowness mid cxclusiveness of sectarianism, 



liECTURES ON EDUCATION. 359 

or political intrigue and management, should meet with a 
stern, and an annihilating rebuke. To the PEOPLE then, 
I clieerfullj commit whatever suggestions^ I may, in tlie hon- 
esty of my soul, have made upon this suhject. To the PEO- 
PLE, I cheerfully commit the mighty enterprise, of lifting 
an entire world, up to that standard of political, intellectual, 
and moral elevation, to which it is destined, one day, to be 
exalted. And may the most beneficent blessings of Heaven 
attend their efforts. 



FINIS. 



ERRATA. 

A few of the prominent omissions, as well as typographical 
and grammatical errors of this volume, are collocated in this 
errata page. Being a first edition, some have, no doubt, 
escaped observation. If so, the reader and the critic are 
respectfully requested to regard them as, in a measure, una- 
voidable; especially, since circumstances have been such, 
that the author could not superintend the publication, nor 
read the proof-sheets himself, but was obliged to send the 
Manuscript, by mail, one hundred and fifty miles. 

On the 68th page, and in the fourth line from the bottom, 
for "|)os/7/o/i.," read, positive. 

On the 83d page, and in the fourth line from the bottom, 
for ^Hhe sons and daughters of the poor" read, the sons and 
daughters of the rich and the poor. 

On the 156th page, and in the fifth line from the bottom, 
for '''•strike balance," read, strike a balance. 

On the 21Tth page, and in the sixth line from the top, for 
^^gave si§ns4g)fwo thatfdll wasjost" read, give signs of wo that 
all is lost. 

On the 258th page, and in the fifth line from the bottom, 
for "amjo/<^," read- exemplify. 

Yot'-'' greater nndHessm-" read, greater and less, wherever it 
occurs in the course of reading; as it has been so printed 
several times in the series. 



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